Major-General William Henry Noble was gazetted to the Royal Artillery as a Lieutenant in March 1856, gaining advancement to Captain in March 1866 and to Major in January 1875. Employed for siege train duties with the Kandahar Field Force during the Second Afghan War, he returned to the U.K. in 1881 to take up appointment as a member of the Ordnance Committee. Noble was next employed as a Superintendent of the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey and advanced to Colonel in January 1886. He was placed on the Retired List as a Temporary Major-General in late 1891.