Anthony Noble Frankland Central Bank, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Distinguished Flying Cross, Doctor of Philosophy,, is a British historian and a former Director General of the Imperial War Museum.
Education
Noble Frankland attended Trinity College, Oxford from March 1941 to May 1942, and then from October 1945 to November 1947. From 1948 until 1951 he worked at the Air Historical Branch of the Air Ministry, and received his Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford in April 1951.
Career
He left the Royal Air Force in 1945 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He was an Official Military Historian to the Cabinet Office between 1951 and 1958. During this time he and his co-author Sir Charles Webster wrote a four volume official history of the Royal Air Force"s strategic air offensive against Germany.
This was part of the official History of the Second World War series.
In 1963, he was invited to give the Lees Knowle Lecture and lectured on The Strategic Air Offensive. From 1960 to 1982 he was Director of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and transformed it from a failing institution into one of the world"s leading historical centres for the study of the conflicts of the 20th century.
During 1971-1974, he was historical advisor to the Thames Television series The World at War (as well as being interviewed for the series) and completed several books on historical subjects.