Sir Iain Noble obituary

Merchant banker who became a champion of the Gaelic language
Sir Iain Noble
Sir Iain Noble founded Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland's Gaelic college, on the Isle of Skye in 1973. Photograph: Peter Jolly/Northpix

Sir Iain Noble obituary

Merchant banker who became a champion of the Gaelic language

Sir Iain Noble, who has died aged 75 after a long illness, was a merchant banker and entrepreneur who committed much of his life's work to promoting the Gaelic language, having made his home on the Isle of Skye. Noble's principal legacy is Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland's Gaelic college, which he founded in embryonic form in 1973. Located on the Sleat peninsula of Skye, it is now a constituent part of the fledgling University of the Highlands and Islands and enjoys one of the most awe-inspiring locations of any learning centre in the world.

The origins of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig owed more to happenstance than design. Until the early 1970s, Noble had been a successful merchant banker in Edinburgh, co-founding the firm of Noble Grossart. He was also an early participant in the North Sea oil industry, as co-founder of the service company Seaforth Maritime. However, he grew increasingly interested in the Gaelic language and the model of the Faroe Islands, which had experienced economic regeneration in the 20th century largely through language revival. Noble believed that the same could be achieved within Scotland's Gaelic-speaking communities, which suffered from out-migration and decline.

He bought 20,000 acres of Skye, plus a hotel at Isle Ornsay, in 1972 for £120,000. This had been part of Lord Macdonald's estate and was being sold to meet death duties. There was little demand at that time for crofting estates because most of the rights on them resided with the tenants. After he had completed the purchase, Noble found that a wide array of other assets had been thrown in to the deal, without him being aware of it.

These included an impressive but semi-derelict farm building called Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Having acquired the property through inadvertence, Noble had to find a use for it and the idea he quickly alighted upon – entirely consistent with his other plans – was to establish what he liked to refer to as the first Gaelic college in Scotland since the time of Columba. Some of the most prominent Gaels of the day, including the poet Sorley MacLean, were recruited to the cause. As Sabhal Mòr Ostaig grew in academic stature and became a more formal centre of higher education, Noble's direct involvement diminished. However, he maintained a lifelong interest in the college.

He also tried hard to stimulate economic activity by starting businesses which, as well as his highly praised hotel, Tigh-Osda Eilean Iarmain, included knitwear, fishing and "Gaelic whiskies". The Sleat peninsula, on which this activity was based, has flourished economically over the past few decades and now holds an unusually high proportion of Gaelic speakers. Much, though by no means all, of that can be attributed to Noble's activities.

He also fought an early battle with Inverness county council to establish the use of Gaelic place names on road signs. Noble prevailed and Gaelic signage has since become commonplace. However, his enthusiasms could carry him into dangerous waters. In 2003, he made a wildly offensive speech in Edinburgh, denouncing English immigration into Gaelic-speaking communities. This was under the auspices of the Scottish Countryside Alliance and even they denounced it as "sounding like something out of Nazi Germany in the 1930s".

This was an unfortunate blot on Noble's reputation since, while his views could be naive and idiosyncratic, he was no racialist. He did, however, suffer from a distinct lack of self-awareness since, as was pointed out at the time, his own background owed nothing at all to the Gaelic identity that he had cultivated.

Noble's father, Sir Andrew Noble Bt, was a diplomat and his mother, Sigrid Michelet, daughter of a Norwegian diplomat. Iain was born in Berlin and educated first in Argentina and then at Eton and Oxford. The family fortune had been made by Iain's great-grandfather, also Sir Andrew, a munitions expert who rose to become chairman of Armstrong, Whitney (later Vickers-Armstrong), employing 20,000 people on the Tyne.

In the early 20th century, the first Sir Andrew Noble bought Ardkinglas estate in Argyll and the Nobles reinvented themselves as Highland lairds who produced a number of interesting characters. Iain's uncle, Michael Noble, was Tory MP for Argyll and president of the Board of Trade. His cousin Johnny founded the Loch Fyne chain of seafood restaurants.

Until declining health set in, Iain divided his time between Skye and Edinburgh. In the 1980s, he founded another merchant bank, Noble and Co, and also Lennox Oil. He was a trustee of the National Museums of Scotland and President of the Saltire Society. However, his lasting legacy will be his work on Skye. He is survived by his wife, Lucilla.

Sir Iain Noble, merchant banker and Gaelic activist, born 8 September 1935; died 25 December 2010