John Thomas Noon

Mr John Thomas Noon was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England in late 1869,¹ possibly on 8 December 1869.

He was the son of Patrick Noon (b. 1847), a plasterer of Irish ancestry, and Mary Hall (b. 1850), natives of Liverpool and Wigan respectively who were married in Wigan in 1868. 

John's known siblings were: Anne (b. 1868), Margaret (b. 1871) and Mary Jane (b. 1878) and he grew up in a Roman Catholic household.

John and his family appear on the 1871 census as residents of Bradford, Yorkshire but by 1881 the family were living at 64 Court, Raymond Street, Liverpool.

Whilst a resident of Epsom Street, Liverpool, he was married to Julia Fleming (b. 18 October 1869 in Liverpool) on 10 December 1899 in St Anthony's Church in that city. Julia was the daughter of Irish parents from Co Mayo, John and Mary Fleming, the latter née Swift. 

The 1901 census shows the couple residing at 4 Kew Street, Liverpool and John was then described as a marine fireman. Their only child, a son named John Patrick², was born the following year on 11 October 1902.

Records indicate that Noon had worked for several years aboard Majestic and had also seen service aboard Cedric, Montrose and Teutonic, all sailing out of Liverpool. 

Although it was believed John was a widower by 1911, this was not in fact the case; in 1907 his wife Julia had began to admit herself to the Liverpool Board of Guardians Workhouse, with four admissions over that year before she was placed in Rainhill County Asylum in St Helens, where she appeared on the 1911 census, described as a “lunatic”. Their young son John was taken in by his late wife's married sister and her family, Mrs Thomas (Mary Ann) Fox of 24 Nursery Street, Liverpool where he appeared on the same census. 

When he signed on for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, Noon gave his local address as the Sailor’s Home in Southampton. Only weeks previously his son had been admitted to the Liverpool Board of Guardians Workhouse.

John Noon died in the disaster and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

His widow Julia died in 1916, apparently still an inmate at the county asylum.

Their son John would receive 2s, 6d per week from the Titanic Relief Fund as a class G dependent. As a teenager he followed his father to sea, first as a scullion and then a trimmer and ultimately as a seaman. In 1927 he married Mary Emma Lavin (1899-1997), with whom he had four children, the family making their home in Salford.

John Noon was lost at sea, aged 40, on 31 December 1942 in the sinking of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Achates.