| Regiment/Service: |
3rd Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers (British Army)
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| Date Of Birth: |
23/10/1886
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| Died: |
16/05/1915 (Killed in Action) |
| Age: |
29 |
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| Robert James Noel Stuart was born in 1886, the only child of Horace Noel Stuart and Madeleine Frances Stuart. Robert’s father Horace was half-brother to Earl Castle Stewart, Stuart Hall, Stewartstown, County Tyrone. Robert received his commission in 1914 and was killed in action at about 08.00 hours on the morning of 16th May 1915. |
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| Robert James Noel Stuart was born on 23rd October 1886 (baptised 3rd December 1886) in Marylebone, London
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| He was the only child of Horace Noel Stuart and Madeleine Frances Stuart (nee Hemming). They lived at 18 Bryanston Street, Marylebone, London
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| Robert’s father, Horace, was half-brother to Earl of Castlestewart, who lived at Stuart Hall, Stewartstown, County Tyrone. Horace died in 1900.
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| In the 1901 English census, Robert was attending Marlborough College (1900 – 1903) and thereafter became a tutor there from 1903 – 1906.
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| In 1906. His mother remarried in spring 1901 to Arthur Prince.
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| Robert went to Straits Settlement (Malaya) as apprentice for the the Road and Bridge Construction company, but returned in1908 due to sickness.
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| He then became an apprentice at a mechanical engineering company, Lacy Herbert in London.
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| In the 1911 English census he is recorded as a visitor in Wheathampstead at Down Green, the home of James Wriothesley Noel. The family relationship is through Robert’s Paternal Grandmother, Mary Penelope Noel.
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| Robert lived at Watergate House, Adelphi, and also at 30 Carrington Court, Mayfair. London.
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| Robert obtained a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in August 1914.
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| 2nd Lieutenant Robert Stuart went to France on 8th March 1915, attached to the 2nd Battalion.
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| He may have been with the 2nd Battalion at Aubers (9-10 May 1915) and was at Festubert (15-25 May 1915).
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| Second Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart was serving with the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (attached to 2nd Battalion) when he was instantaneously killed by shell fire at about 08.00 hours near Festubert on the morning of 17th May 1915.
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| He was buried in France by men of the Scots Fusiliers His commanding officer wrote that ‘He was a very good reliable officer and a very good fellow.’
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 31st May 1915: Lord Castle Stewart's Nephew
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| It is officially announced that Second Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart, Royal Scots Fusiliers, was killed in action in northern France on 17th May. The deceased, who was born on 23rd October 1886, was the only child of the late Mr Horace Noel Stuart, brother of the sixth and present Earl of Castle Stewart, of Stewartstown, County Tyrone. He received his commission in August. The Earls of Castle Stewart, although their peerage is an Irish one, are of Scottish descent, deriving from a son of Murdoch, second Duke of Albany. Curiously they would have been Scottish peers had not their ancestor, the third Lord Ochiltree, by a process not now competent, got rid of his Scottish peerage and obtained an Irish peerage from King James VI, who had made him a grant of lands in County Tyrone, where this family still resides in Stuart Hall. The Earl’s second son, Captain the Honourable R S Stewart, also of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, has been missing for some time.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 3rd June 1915: How Lord Castle Stewart’s Nephew
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| Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart, of whom a notice appeared in this column recently, was instantaneously killed by shell fire about 8am on 17 May and was buried in France by men of the Scots Fusiliers His commanding officer writes ‘He was a very good reliable Officer and a very good fellow. We are all much grieved at his death, he was a thorough soldier.” Lieutenant Stuart was a nephew of the Earl of Castle Stewart, of Stewartstown, County Tyrone.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 5th June 1915: Lieutenant R J N Stuart
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| Second Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart, Royal Scots Fusiliers, was killed in action in Flanders on 17th May. The deceased, who was born in 1886, was the only child of the late Mr Horace Noel Stuart, brother of the present Earl of Castlestewart. He received his commission in August, The Earls of Castlestewart, although their peerage is an Irish one, are of Scottish descent, deriving from a son of Murdoch, second Duke of Albany. Captain the Honourable R S Stewart, also of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, has been missing for some time. The deceased was instantaneously killed by shell fire about 8am on 17 May and was buried in France by men of the Scots Fusiliers. His commanding officer writes;-
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| ‘He was a very good reliable officer and a very good fellow. We are all much grieved at his death, he was a thorough soldier.’
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| From the Tyrone Courier dated 10th June 1915: How Lieutenant R J N stuart died
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| Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart, of whom a notice appeared in the Courier last week, was instanteously killed by shell fire about 8am on 17 May and was buried in Frsnce by men of the Scots Fusiliers His commanding officer writes “He was a very good reliable Officer and a very good fellow, we are all much grieved at his death, he was a thorough soldier.” Lieutenant Stuart was a nephew of the Earl of Castlestewart.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 19th July 1915: Wills of Northern Officers – Second Lieutenant R J N Stuart
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| Second Lieutenant Robert James Noel Stuart, Royal Scots Fusiliers, of Watergate House, Adelphi, W.C., and of 30 Carrington Court, Mayfair, W., who was killed in action near Festubert on 17th May last, aged 28 years, nephew of the Earl of Castlestewart, left unsettled property value for probate at £9,169 9s 4d. Probate of his will, dated 16th February last, has been granted to Mr James Wriothesley Noel, bank clerk, of 37 Fleet Street, E.C., and Mr John Frederick Buttle, solicitor, of 15 Basinghall Street, E.C., to the last name of whom he left 100 pounds The testator left £100 to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Roehamption, £100 to his aunt, Lady Beatrice Stewart; the contents of his flat, 30 Carrington Court, to Viscount Stuart; his rings, gold chain, and half hunter watch to the Earl of Castlestewart; an annuity of £100 to Darwin Edward Stuart; an annuity of £50 to Katherine Frances Stuart; and, subject to some other bequests, the residue of his property to the Earl of Castlestewart, with the request that it may be used for the upkeep of the title. He stated that the bulk of his property would not fall in until his mother’s death, and he therefore gave his trustees power to postpone the payment of legacies until that time if necessary.
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| Lieutenant Stuart is buried in plot 5, row L, grave 3 at Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy, France.
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| He was the second son of the 6th Earl Castle Stewart and Countess Castle Stewart, Stuart Hall, Stewartstown, County Tyrone, and husband of Nancye Stuart (nee Croker) who was the daughter of Captain Croker, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Nancye was a nurse in France the First World War. Robert and Nancye had no children.
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| Robert James Noel Stuart was a cousin of Robert Sheffield Stuart who was killed in action on 2nd November 1914.
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