Andrew Noble was a Scot destined to play a notable part in the history of the North East. After an uneventful military career in the Royal Artillery, mostly spent abroad, Noble found that the military authorities were much preoccupied with the problem of replacing the old smooth-bore guns which had been in service since Waterloo, and took up a partnership in the Armstrong concern at Elswick. Sir William (later Lord) Armstrong submitted for trial to the War Office a rifled, breech-loading field gun, and so marked the transition from mediaeval to modern artillery. Though the Armstrong Gun of 1855 had certain drawbacks and the government reverted to muzzle-loaders, experiments at Elswick produced the 6-in. and 8-in. guns which entered service c 1880. The 12-pounder of 1881 was superior to all previous guns and was adopted by the horse and field artillery. Various types of Elswick guns also saw service against the Boers.
By the time Armstrong retired from the day to day running of the works in 1883, Noble was vice-chairman of the company and in 1900 on Armstrong's death, he became chairman. Noble was now in control of one of the largest industrial enterprises in the country and had the opportunity and resources to pursue the study of gunnery and explosives. He made full use of them. Confining the charge within a closed steel chamber, he determined the pressures created and analysed the gases and residues. He found that it was possible to calculate the velocity of the projectile through the bore. All these processes, commonplace today, were unknown before Noble's time and the exact science of ballistics may be said to be due to his work. As it has been said: 'Few men have done more for the design of ordnance and its ammunition and for the science of gunnery'. As for naval guns, the arguments from Noble's experiments were conclusive and the muzzle-loading enthusiasts had to yield. In the words of Lloyd and Hadcock in 1893: 'In England there commenced probably the most extraordinary revolution that ever took place in connection with warlike material.'
Noble combined a continuing interest in scientific experiment and publication, often carried on in his own laboratory in Jesmond Dene House at night, with great administrative abilities. He was in daily attendance in his office or in the workshops and actively superintended every detail. The latter part of the nineteenth century saw great ship-building activity at Elswick, where the yards opened in 1884. Armstrongs built ships for the navies of Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain, the United States and many more. The first Russian icebreaker, the Yermak, was built in early 1898 together with ferry craft for the Trans-Siberian Railway. A great many merchant ships were built for the emerging Japanese merchant navy at the Low Walker yard and sixteen warships for the Japanese fleet at Elswick, including three battleships. In addition some twenty-two had been armed there. The steelworks at Elswick meant that Armstrong's was the only factory in the world which could build a warship and arm it completely. In armaments manufacture, Elswick was rivalled only by Krupp's in Germany, which was, by contrast, heavily subsidised by the German government.
Marie Conte-Helm points out the many close links between the Elswick works and Japan in her fascinating book: Japan and the North East of England. As Noble was the leading ambassador of the Elswick works in the heyday of foreign sales, the Nobles' Newcastle home, Jesmond Dene House, was often the scene of lavish international soirees. It is an interesting point that in the late 1880s, the Japanese had initially looked to France and Germany for guns but found the English more 'kindly'. Noble on one occasion organised a deer-shooting expedition in Redesdale in order to demonstrate to the visiting Japanese the principles of the quick-firing breech-loading gun. As a result the Japanese representative committed himself to purchasing 12-inch Armstrong guns for the Japanese Navy.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Tyne-built ships were in action at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the decisive naval engagement of Tsushima (27 May 1905) where the Russian Baltic fleet, after sailing half-way round the world, was virtually destroyed. Sir Andrew Noble used to boast that all the guns of the Japanese fleet at Tsushima were made in Elswick. In April 1906,the crew of the battleship Kashima arrived in Newcastle to collect their ship from Elswick and were hailed by the Geordies as 'Togo's heroes'. That evening, a large group of Japanese sailors watched Newcastle United play Stoke City. Admiral Togo himself, the 'Japanese Nelson', the victor of Tsushima, came to Tyneside in 1911 and stayed with Sir Andrew Noble at Jesmond Dene House.
Sir Andrew Noble died in 1915 as the great days of the Elswick shipyard were drawing to a close, though Lady Noble continued the Jesmond Dene House tradition of entertaining the famous, and offered hospitality to foreign naval personnel throughout the Great War, as she states in her memoirs, published in 1925 when she was 97 (she lived to be 103). Jesmond Dene House is now a school, but a portrait of Sir Andrew is still there on the staircase, in suit and watch-chain, displaying the strong jaw and magnificent moustaches that made this remarkable man such a striking figure.