Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin (1886–1946), racing motor car and warship manufacturer

Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin (1886–1946), racing motor car and warship manufacturer, was born in Western Australia on 28 October 1886, the eldest son of Charles Campbell Macklin (1866–1918), barrister, and his wife, Ada Louisa, née Lockyer (1863/4–1935). The family was resident in Wimbledon by 1891 and Macklin was educated at Eton College. He became a successful amateur jockey, represented England at ice hockey between 1908 and 1910, and raced at Brooklands in a Mercedes in 1909. He married in March 1912 Esmé Victoria (b. 1887), daughter of Hinton Stewart of Strathgarry, Perthshire. Commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery in 1914, he served in France where he was badly wounded in 1915. On his transfer to the RNVR he enlisted Violette Cordery as his driver. In 1919 his marriage ended in divorce and at Chertsey register office, on 24 August 1920, he married (Lucy) Leslie Cordery (1896–1980), whose name was variously given as Leslie Lane Cordery and Leslie Cordery Lane, and identified as daughter of Henry Lane, farmer, with whom he had two daughters and a son. After the war Macklin became involved in making fast cars, initially the Eric-Campbell and then the Silver Hawk, at Fairmile, Cobham, Surrey. Backed by his neighbours, Oliver and Philip Lyle (of the Tate and Lyle sugar family), Macklin went on to develop the Invicta, which had enormous torque (pulling power) that demanded little or no gear-changing—as requested by Mrs Eileen Lyle—and offered motorists effortless performance. Such was the flexibility of the engine that owners were expected to use just first and top gear. After the successes of Cordery and Healey, Macklin ceased to manufacture the Invicta in 1933 and went on to make Railton cars under licence at his works at Fairmile, Cobham.