In 1915, he was appointed Vice-Consul to Ahwaz in Persia and Consul for Kerman and Persian Baluchistan in 1929. He aided Peter Polovtsov, a tsarist general to escape from Russia in 1918. Then, while carrying despatches for Dunsterforce, Noel was held hostage by the Jangalis in 1919. He became a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in the 1918 New Year Honours and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919. In the aftermath of the World War I, he supported a creation of an independent Kurdistan and made extensive excursions through the region and had established good relations with descendants of Bedir Khan Beg and Sheikh Ubeydullah.