Noël Rothes is known as the heroine of the 1912 Titanic tragedy; she helped to command the lifeboat she was in and she also steered the lifeboat away from the sinking Titanic.

Noël was decisive and optimistic and this encouraged the other survivors in the lifeboat to remain calm under this extremely difficult situation. She even took to the oars and helped get the lifeboat to RMS Carpathia where they could be rescued.

Noël joined The Titanic in Southampton with her parents, her husband’s cousin, Gladys Cherry and her maid, Roberta Maioni. Her parents left the ship at Cherbourg and the others continued their journey to New York , where she was to meet up with her husband, the Earl of Rothes.

The women were in their beds when The Titanic hit the iceberg and they went up on deck to investigate and were told by Captain E. J. Smith to return to their cabins and put on their lifejackets.

Noël, Gladys and her maid were rescued in Lifeboat 8 which was lowered into the sea at approximately 1:00 AM, over an hour after the collision. Tom Jones was the Able Seaman who was placed in charge of the boat said that he recognised the leadership qualities in Noël saying, “she had a lot to say, so I put her to steering the boat.”

During the night she rowed the lifeboat and helping to boost the morale of the other women until their lifeboat was picked up by RMS Carpathia early the next morning.

Once aboard the rescue vessel, she devoted her time to the welfare of the women and children. A stewardess told Noël, “You have made yourself famous by rowing in the boat,” to which Noël replied, “I hope not, I have done nothing.”

She was not comfortable with the publicity she received once in New York insisting that it was the cool-headed leadership of Seaman Jones and help from her cousin-in-law and the other women that deserved the praise.

She gifted Jones with an inscribed silver pocket watch and he gave her a brass number plate from their lifeboat, number 8. They wrote to each other regularly until Noël’s death in 1956.