May 9th 2002 saw the death of Johnny Noble, co-founder of Loch Fyne Oysters and Loch Fyne Restaurant

May 9th 2002 saw the death of Johnny Noble, co-founder of Loch Fyne Oysters and Loch Fyne Restaurants. Johnny did national service with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders after which he joined the merchant bank S. G. Warburg. He then worked in a Yugoslavian wine firm before starting his own company in London, French & Foreign Wines, which continued after 1972 when he started spending part of his time running the estate. When he inherited Ardkinglas it was making a loss, saddled with heavy death duties and a large work force.   And so it was  in 1978, he was looking for a way to help support his estate of Ardkinglas, on the shores of Loch Fyne, which he had inherited along with considerable debts. When Andrew Lane, a marine farmer, suggested the idea of growing oysters in the unpolluted waters of Loch Fyne, he jumped at the idea. The venture grew from a few hundred seed oysters to the millions that are laid down today. In 1980, Noble and Lane set up an oyster bar at the head of Loch Fyne. It began as an umbrella and a trestle table and then transferred to a cowshed. Soon the venture became a restaurant, and then evolved into a chain of oyster bars. He read avidly on historical, biographical and culinary subjects, played curling, was a good shot, and loved his arboretum. Building on the remains of his grandfather’s collection of silver he added many fine pieces of old Scottish silver. Celebrities would be a common sight, even if the hosts often didn’t recognise them. Andy Lane once commented in an interview;He said: “The funny thing is that for years you could hardly watch TV there because the reception was so lousy and so customers used to tell us that such and such a person had been in the restaurant."None of us had a clue because we didn’t know what a lot of these people would look like."We did get more tuned in later on, though. Robbie Coltrane was a regular and always very popular with the staff."We saw Billy Connolly a few times, Clint Eastwood was in and poor old Dustin Hoffman got turned away two days running because we couldn’t find him a seat. He took it very well.”When Johnny died of liver cancer in 2002, aged just 65 it hit Andy hard. With only a few close friends, such as Andy, knowing of his illness, his death came as a shock to many and, being the majority shareholder, it also created uncertainty for the company. Andy said: “It was very very difficult as it felt as if your partner had died and you’d been left to look after the 10 kids. -- source link
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