The Right Honourable
The Lord Noon
MBE
Member of the House of Lords
In office
31 January 2011 – 27 October 2015
Personal details
Born
Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon

(1936-01-24)24 January 1936
Bombay, India
Died27 October 2015(2015-10-27) (aged 79)
London, England
CitizenshipBritish
Political partyLabour

Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon, Baron Noon, MBE (24 January 1936 – 27 October 2015) was a British businessman originally from Mumbai, India. Known as the "Curry King", Noon operated a number of food product companies in Southall, London. He was a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Ismaili Shia community.

Early life

Noon was born in 1936, into a Dawoodi Bohra Muslim family which operated a sweet shop in Bombay. His father died when he was 7, and a relative ran the business until Noon took over its management at the age of 17. He renamed the shop "Royal Sweets", and expanded its clientele and size until it was capable of exporting internationally.[1]

In 1964, Noon travelled to Britain and emigrated permanently in 1972. He established a sweet shop in Southall, producing such products as Bombay mix.[1]

Career

Noon group offices at Queen Anne's Gate, London

Noon founded and operated a number of food product companies in Southall, London, specialising in Indian cuisine. His main business was Noon Products which he established in September 1987, manufacturing chilled and frozen Indian and Thai ready meals, predominantly for UK supermarkets. Though he did not invent the dish, Noon is credited with the popularity of chicken tikka masala in Britain.[1]

In 1994, the company experienced a serious factory fire which destroyed much of its manufacturing capability, but within ten weeks the company began selling its products again. Noon kept all his staff in employment during this period.[2]

In 2005, Noon Products was taken over by Irish food conglomerate Kerry Group.[3]

Other interests

In March 2006 he came to wider notice as one of the businessmen embroiled in the "Cash for Peerages" scandal when it emerged that he had loaned £250,000 to the Labour Party.[4] He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the food industry in 1994 (under a Conservative government) and knighted in 2002. Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said that awarding knighthoods to party donors, like Noon, would devalue the whole honours system.[5] In 2010, Noon was invited to become one of the Labour Party's assistant treasurers, a fund-raising role. He told The Guardian: "I have always been a Labour supporter and wanted to ensure that Gordon Brown was given an opportunity to finish off the job that we started under Blair so I accepted [the] invitation".[6]

Noon was a declared backer of the Britain in Europe group, a pro-European pressure group. He was a trustee of the Maimonides Foundation, a charitable organisation promoting dialogue between Jews and Muslims.[7]

Personal life

A castaway on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs in 2004, in The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 he was placed in 888th position with an estimated fortune of £65 million. He died of cancer on 27 October 2015.[8]

Views on extremist imams

Noon was among those trapped in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel by terrorists during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, but was rescued and later appeared on BBC News to describe his experiences.[9] He subsequently praised the response by India's Muslim community to the attacks, saying:

"Indian Muslims have refused to bury the nine dead terrorists. They are still in the mortuary. It is a good symbolic message for the rest of secular India." "Now Britain needs to get tough with the radical imams. We have the power to do something."[10]

He also called for Britain to toughen measures against extremist Muslim preachers, and said that the door was open for foreign imams to radicalise young Muslims in mosques across Britain:

"Having seen what I saw at close quarters, the indiscriminate violence and pain inflicted in the name of my religion, I am astounded that I hear from friends in the community that radical preachers are still coming to this country and praising attacks by Al-Qaeda and suicide missions. There is a limit to free speech. Extremists who preach their approval of suicide bombers should be sent back to their country of origin."[11]

Honours

Noon was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1996 New Year Honours.[12] He was later made a Knight Bachelor in the 2002 Birthday Honours,[13] having the honour conferred in December that year.[14]

He was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of East London on 12 November 2009.[15] In January 2013, Lord Noon was appointed as the chancellor of that institution.[16] In this titular position, he presided over the degree ceremonies.

On 27 January 2011, he was created a life peer as Baron Noon, of St John's Wood in the London Borough of Camden[17] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 31 January 2011,[18] where he sat on the Labour benches.

On 26 April 2012, Noon was made a Fellow of Birkbeck, a constituent college of the University of London.

Arms

Coat of arms of Gulam Noon, Baron Noon
Crest
Two peacocks respectant Proper holding between them a torch Gules banded Or enflamed Proper.[19]
Escutcheon
Gules on a fess between three Bengal tigers passant Or three doves Sable.
Supporters
On either side statant upon a rock a peacock Proper gorged with a coronet Or.

Books

  • Noon, with a View: Courage and Integrity (2009) ISBN 978-1-904445-79-1 [20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Lord Noon, businessman - obituary". The Telegraph. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  2. ↑ Davidson, Andrew (27 November 2008). "The MT Interview: Sir Gulam Noon". Management Today. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Smith, Peter (6 August 2005). "Noon Products sold to Kerry Group for £125m". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Levy's advice to donor revealed". BBC News. BBC. 11 July 2006. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Donor's knighthood 'undermines system'". BBC News. BBC. 17 June 2002. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Syal, Rajeev (16 April 2010). "Labour party bids to boost flagging coffers by hiring Sir Gulam Noon". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Maimonides Foundation". Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  8. ↑ "The Statesman: Britain's Curry King Lord Gulam Noon passes away". thestatesman.com.
  9. ↑ Thomson, Alice; Sylvester, Rachel (27 November 2008). "Sir Gulam Noon, British 'Curry King': how I escaped bombed hotel". The Times. London. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
  10. ↑ "Noon lauds Indian Muslim response to 26/11". Press Trust of India. 29 November 2009.
  11. ↑ Syal, Rajeev (29 November 2009). "British Muslim tycoon Sir Gulam Noon calls for curbs on extremist imams". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  12. ↑ "No. 54255". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1995. p. 22.
  13. ↑ "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. p. 1.
  14. ↑ "No. 57030". The London Gazette. 15 August 2003. p. 10217.
  15. ↑ "James Caan, Sir Gulam Noon MBE and West Ham United celebrate Business School graduates success".
  16. ↑ "UEL new chancellor". Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "No. 59687". The London Gazette. 1 February 2011. p. 1657.
  18. ↑ "House of Lords Business". parliament.uk.
  19. ↑ Debrett's Peerage. 2015. p. 918.
  20. ↑ "IndiaToday.in: Latest News, Breaking India News on Bollywood, Cricket, Business, Politics". intoday.in.
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