British composer and songwriter, specialising in music hall and operettas, trained at London's Royal College of Music. Born Reginald Moxon Armitage, he allegedly derived his stage name after coming across a 1924 bus sign which read: 'NOEL Coward and Maisie GAY in a new revue'. His song 'Tondelayo', featured in the movie
White Cargo (1929), was first to be synchronised with the action in a British sound feature.