Thomas Balfour Noble

MR. THOMAS BALFOUR NOBLE, the Licensee, was born near Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, in 1836. In 1858 he joined the 5th Royal Lancers, and held an appointment as paymaster's sergeant in the King County Militia. He arrived in New Zealand as sergeant with the 14th Regiment in 1860, served in the Waikato campaign, and was afterwards attached to the Commissariat Department as storekeeper. Mr. Noble purchased his discharge in 1868 as sergeant from the Commissariat Staff Corps, and served for eighteen months as a member of the Armed Constabulary in Auckland. He then settled in Taupo, where he was book-keeper for the contractor for stores to the Armed Constabulary, and had charge of his store, prior to taking the Taupo Hotel. Mr. Noble was married, in 1864, to a daughter of the late Mr. R. Marshall, of Auckland, and has four sons and four daughters. Source: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District], 1902, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-d3-...

TAUPO HOTEL (Thomas Balfour Noble, licensee), Taupo. This hotel was established about 1870, when it had only five rooms, but the present building has fourteen rooms, including eight bedrooms, and there is capital stabling behind the hotel. Noble has been licensee since 1876. Source: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District], 1902, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-d3-...