James Noble (1876?-1941) was a missionary and the first

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

clergyman in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was also a significant source of evidence in investigations into what became called the

Forrest River Massacre The Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre of June 1926, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a group of law enforcement personnel and civilians in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Wester ...

Biography

Early life

Noble worked as a stockman during the early 1890s. Reputedly born in

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

, he later came to work at a station near Scone, New South Wales. He was baptized at Scone in July 1895.

Clerical career

In 1896 Noble came to work at Yarrabah Mission near Cairns, Queensland, where he 'became indispensable' to the missionary efforts of superintendent

Ernest Gribble Ernest Richard Bulmer Gribble (23 November 186818 October 1957) was an Australian missionary. Though considered to be temperamentally unsuited to his vocation, he became a strong advocate for better treatment of Australian Aboriginal people, savin ...

. At Yarrabah he married Maggie Frew and they had a son, however both she and the child died shortly afterwards. Noble later married Angelina (c.1879-1964), with whom he had six surviving children. In 1914 James and Angelina Noble arrived at the newly reopened Forrest River Mission in Western Australia, where they worked for the next eighteen years. In September 1925 Noble became the first Aboriginal Anglican clergyman in Australia, when he was made

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in a ceremony at

St George's Cathedral, Perth St George's Cathedral is the principal Anglican church in the city of Perth, Western Australia, and the mother-church of the Anglican Diocese of Perth. It is located on St Georges Terrace in the centre of the city. On 26 June 2001 the cath ...

. In 1926 Noble, who was skilled in tracking, went to investigate rumours that the police had massacred Aboriginal people close to the Forrest River. He discovered apparent evidence that people had been tied to trees and shot, before their remains were dismembered and burnt. In 1927 Noble gave evidence before a Royal Commission of Inquiry which concluded that police had probably murdered eleven people, but could not ascertain which individuals had been responsible. After their return to Yarrabah in 1932, the Nobles went to work with Gribble at the Palm Island mission. Two years later, Noble's poor health forced him to retire from Palm Island, and he returned with his family to Yarrabah. He died in 1941 after suffering injuries in a fall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, James 1941 deaths Australian Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in Australia Year of birth uncertain Indigenous Australian clergy Australian stockmen