The "Private Lives" of Noel Coward

Noel Coward had a life as ‘colorful’ as any one of his many plays. The “man” was known for his wit, flamboyance, and his “sense of personal style, combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise,” (Time magazine).

Although he obviously loved the theatre, when World War Two broke out, Noel abandoned the theatre and ‘sought’ official war work. He ran the British propaganda office in Paris from where he concluded that: “if the policy of His Majesty’s Government is to bore the Germans to death I don’t think we have time.” Then, Noel Coward worked on behalf of British Intelligence. He was to use his celebrity status to influence the American public and political opinion in favor of helping Britain, in 1914.

King George VI wanted to award Noel with a knighthood for his work during the war, but Winston Churchill dissuaded the late King, mindful of Noel’s flamboyant lifestyle and because of his £200 fine for contravening currency regulations in 1941.

Noel didn’t realize until after the war had finished that he was on the Nazi blacklist. Along with Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C.P. Snow and H.G. Wells, he would have been arrested and killed had the Nazi’s invaded Britain, and all Noel had to say was: “If anyone had told me at that time I was high up on the Nazi blacklist, I should have laughed.”

Churchill dais to Noel: “Go and sing to them (the troops overseas), when the guns are firing — that’s your job.” Noel was disappointed because he wanted to stay in the secret service, but he followed the advice and toured, acting and singing tirelessly in Europe, Africa, Asia and America.

Noel’s London home was bombed in 1841 so he took up temporary residence in the Savoy Hotel. Even her, he would do impromptu cabaret alongside fellow artists Carroll Gibbons and Judy Campbell, to try to keep the other guests calm during the air raids.

After the war, Noel’s plays were ‘moderately successful’ but did not match the same popularity of his pre-war hits.

Noel Coward was homosexual, but because of the conventions of the time, he ‘stayed in the closet’ and it was never mentioned publicly. “No private considerations have been allowed to deflect the drive of his career,” — Kenneth Tynan, 1953. Noel firmly believed that his private life should stay private and not be open for public ‘opinion’. He felt that “any sexual activities when over-advertised” was tasteless. All through his life, Noel refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly. However, he did encourage Cole Lesley, his secretary, to write a frank biography but only after he was ‘safely dead’.

Noel’s most important relationship started in the mid-1940s and lasted until his death in 1973. It was with the South African stage and film actor Graham Payn, who featured in several of Noel’s London productions.

He had a 19 year friendship with Prince George, Duke of Kent. Whether this was platonic or not we may never know as biographers cannot agree on this, but we do know that when the Prince died during active service in 1942, Noel said about his friend: “I suddenly find that I loved him more than I knew.”

Noel still had close friendships with women, especially fellow artists Gladys Calthrop, Joyce Carey and “his loyal and lifelong amitie amoureuse” Marlene Dietrich (to name just three).

During his professional career, Noel was admired and loved for his generosity and kindness toward those who had fallen on hard times. He would inconspiciously and discreetly find ways to relieve the needs and debts of old theatrical acquaintances.

From 1934 until 1956, Noel Coward was the president of the Actors’ Orphanage, which was supported by the theatrical industry.

Noel acquired Goldenhurst Farm, in Aldington, Kent, in 1926, and this was his home for the next 36 years, (except during World War Two when the military used it for war work). Then for tax reasons, Noel left the UK and finally had houses in Bermuda, Jamaica and Switzerland, which became his homes for the rest of his life.

All through his life, Noel carefully cultivated his image. “I am determined to travel through life first class,” he said, polishing his image. An early press photograph showed Noel sitting up in bed holding a cigarette holder. Time magazine noted: “Coward’s great single gift has not been writing or composing, not acting or directing, but projecting a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.”

Noel acquired the nickname “The Master”, and when a journalist asked why he was known by that, Noel answered: “Oh you know — Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Nel Coward died of heart failure in 1973, at 73 years old, at his home in Jamaica, in the West Indies.

We shall never see anyone as passionate about his writing as Noel Coward was, in 1970, Noel was knighted and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, receiving a Tony Award for his lifetime achievement in 1970. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex.

The late Queen Mother unveiled a memorial stone in 1984, in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey. When thanked by Graham Payn, (Noel’s partner), the late Queen Mother simply said: “I came because he was my friend.”

I’ll close with Noel’s own words, which showed (I personally think) his sense of humor: “My sense of my importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my sense of my own importance to myself is tremendous.”