Noel Victor Lane was just 19 when he travelled to Leicester and volunteered to join the Army. He was born in Earl Shilton, as were both his father and grandfather before him. His father Henry had run the “Lord Nelson Inn” in Earl Shilton before moving the family to Ibstock in around 1905, where he had advertised in a local trade directory as a carpenter and general store holder. By the outbreak of the war the family had moved to 154 High Street, Ibstock.

With no obvious Scottish connection, Noel Lane had chosen to join the King's Own Scottish Borderers, one of the very few men from Leicestershire to serve in any battalion of the KOSB. His younger brother Thomas Hugh Lane would later join the Black Watch, while his older brother Charles Henry served in the RFA. Noel's service papers have not survived but he was first sent to France on 15/10/1915 and posted to the 7th KOSB. It's not known when he enlisted, but Pte. 20751 John Thomas Hawkins KOSB, awarded a SWB on discharge, is recorded as enlisting on 12.7.1915. With both the 7th and 8th KOSB suffering very heavy casualties at Loos in September 1915, where Piper Daniel Laidlaw had won the V.C. On 25th Sept., it is possible that the training of replacements like Noel was little more than four months or so. During this time, Noel Lane would have grown accustomed to the unfamiliar accents around him.

The privately publish history of the 7th/8th Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers gives a vivid account of the trench warfare endured between October 1915 and May 1916, a period described as:

Noel would have joined the 7th KOSB when it was moved to trenches in the front near Vermelles in the second week of October 1915. Troops proceeded pass the Philosophe cross-roads, along the Mazingarbe-Vermelles Road,via a desolate Vermelles past the cemetery, already a forest of wooden crosses, then into the communication trenches and via “Chapel Alley” to their sector of the front. The first relief came on the 26th October. At Nouex-les-Mines, the streets of miner's cottages and slag heaps of the area would have had something in common with Ibstock, but there was little of comfort there for the troops. Public rooms were dominated by RAMC Filed Ambulances, only when they were pushed out did the men get a bath house and later a “Field Force Canteen” and a YAMC room. The area's level ground soon became water logged in wet weather and on return to the trenches the men had to work day and night just to keep them usable. All the time the enemy's “whizz-bangs” and “heavies” took their toll as working parties assisted RE tunnellers in making bomb-proof dugouts.

Midway through November 1915 the 7th KOSB get a few days rest at Vaudricourt a “pleasant agricultural village, near Verquin”, before returning to trench duty on 26th November.

There was much accurate shelling, particularly when they moved on 3rd December into the firing line opposite the Hohenzollern Redoubt. By the 13th December the 7th KOSB have moved to Burbure for a month's rest. The lucky ones were granted leave, and travelled by train via Boulogne to London and then home, it's not known if Noel Lane was amongst them. As 1915 came to a close the 7th and 8th KOSB celebrated as best they could:

When they returned to the trenches, some sort of action was anticipated for the27th of January, the Kaiser's birthday.

The sparodic shelling, sniping, and over flying by enemy aeroplanes continued for weeks until both 7th and 8th KOSB moved to Raimbert for a month's rest on 27th March 1916.

An enemy attack on 11th May captures a section of trench, Boyau 99. After several failed counter-attacks it's the task of the 8th KOSB to make a further attempt at 6.45pm on 14th May. The attack did not succeed, and the 8th KOSB casualties were 5 Officers and 85 other ranks. After this, the history states:

On the 7th June the battalion was in the Hohenzollern sector and up to the 20th June there was a lot of mining and counter-mining, stretching nerves with the ever present threat of being blown to eternity. Constant spade work and fatigue parties continued as the Battalion was plagued by trench mortar fire and rifle grenades. The history notes:

It also adds that for this period alone,

.

Pte. 20759 Noel Victor Lane's war has come to an end, just prior to, or during the relief of 20th June 1916 his is killed in action and is buried at IV. B. 3. VERMELLES BRITISH CEMETERY in the very cemetery he must have passed many times.

His brothers Thomas and Charles return home at the end of the war, and join Noel's parents in mourning his loss.