Colonel Francis Alfred Lucas (7 June 1850 – 11 December 1918) was a British company director and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who lived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. He sat in the

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from 1900 until his defeat in 1906. He died whilst a prospective candidate in the 1918 election and he was replaced by his wife, Alice Theresa Lucas.

Early life

Lucas was the son of Sampson Lucas, of Gloucester Square, London. He was educated privately and then at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, after which he went into business, becoming a partner in Lucas, Nicholls and Company, a merchants firm with operations in London,

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. He was a director of both Allied Insurance and Allied Marine Insurance. He was also an actively involved in the

Volunteer Force The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...

, serving for 35 years as a member of the

Artists Rifles The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regimen ...

, mostly as an officer. He then became Commander of the Harwich Voluntary Infantry Brigade from 1900 to 1906. He was also a governor of

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

and of

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

, and a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for

, where his country residence ''Easton Park'' was located near

Wickham Market Wickham Market is a large village and electoral ward situated in the River Deben valley of Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coastal heritage area. It is on the A12 trunk road north-east of the county town of Ipswich, north-east of Wood ...

Political career

He unsuccessfully contested the Louth division of Lincolnshire at the 1895 general election, and at the 1900 general election he was elected as MP for Lowestoft, with a majority of over 20% of the votes.Craig, ''1885–1918'', page 392 However, at the 1906 election, he was defeated by the Liberal candidate

Edward Beauchamp Sir Edward Beauchamp, 1st Baronet JP (12 April 1849 – 1 February 1925) was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician. Background Beauchamp was educated at Highgate School. He served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He was Chairma ...

, who won the seat with a 14% majority. Noting the scale of Liberal gains in the election, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' noted the Lowestoft result as evidence that "apparently, no Unionist seat is now secure". After his defeat in 1906, Lucas did not stand again in Lowestoft. He unsuccessfully contested the Kennington division of Lambeth at both the January 1910 and

December 1910 The following events occurred in December 1910: December 1, 1910 (Thursday) * Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for his eighth term as President of Mexico."Record of Current Events", ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (January 1911), pp ...

elections,Craig, ''1885–1918'', page 30 and at the 1918 general election he stood again in Kennington. However he died on 11 December 1918, aged 68, after he had already been formally nominated, which caused the election to be delayed in Kennington until his wife, Alice Theresa Lucas could be nominated. Alice was nearly elected and she would have been the only woman MP from the 1918 election. His death, at his London residence in Stornoway House, Cleveland Row,

St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the de ...

, was due to

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

brought about by

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

Family

In 1887 Lucas married

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

who was a hospital administrator. She was the younger daughter of Viscount David de Stern, a German-born banker, cofounder of the

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

Stern Brothers (London) and a member of the Stern banking family.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Francis A 1850 births 1918 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1900–1906 Alumni of University College London Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in England People from Suffolk Coastal (district) Stern family (banking) 19th-century English businesspeople