XXXll 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



tea.chers of navigation and nautical astronomy.* Lucas inherited from his 

 ancestors his scientific interests and ability, his power of designing new- 

 apparatus, and his engineering capacity, as well as his great manual dexterity. 



From the Eev. T. Oldham's preparatory school at Blackheath, he gained a 

 Classical Scholarship at Kugby in 1893. He was in the Volunteers at 

 Eugby, and in the Shooting Eight for four years ; and was captain of it in 

 1897-8. He was head of the School House before he left to come up to 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, with a Minor Scholarship in Classics. 



His interest in Engineering and Science was encouraged at home, where he 

 learnt the use of many tools. His work was from the first neat and practical. 

 His mastery of the design of new instruments, coupled with his capacity of 

 making what he wanted, gave him great power in the art of experiment in 

 such dissimilar sciences as Physiology and Aeronautics. 



At Cambridge he devoted himself to Science, and took a First Class in the 

 Natural Sciences Tripos, Part I, 1901. After the Tripos, he felt the strain of 

 doing so much work in a new direction, and at this time liis old school friend, 

 Charles Powell, was killed in the Boer War. Lucas felt his death acutely. 

 He gave up working for the second part of the Natural Sciences Tripos and 

 went to New Zealand for the sake of rest and change. There, he measured 

 the depth of some lakes reported as bottomless, and when he returned to 

 England he published the paper, " A Bathymetrical Survey of the Lakes of 

 New Zealand," in the ' Geographical Journal,' May and June, 1904. His 

 father's experience in deep-sea sounding and cable laying was naturally 

 helpful to him. This was the beginning of his original work. The advances 

 he made in Physiology are described in a separate Memoir, and were not 

 interrupted till the war induced him to devote his abilities to Aeronautics. 



He was elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1904 and in the same year gained 

 the Walsingham Medal and the Gedge Prize. He was appointed Lecturer in 

 the College in Natural Sciences and took the Degree of D.Sc. in 1911. He 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1913, having already delivered 

 the Croonian Lecture in 1912. He also gave the Page May Memorial 

 Lectures in connection with the Institute of Physiology, University College, 

 London, in 1914. 



He felt that all should take their full share in the work connected with the 

 administration of the University and College business. He was on the 

 Council of his College for some years, spoke little, but always to the point, 

 and took his full share in decisions, and his opinion was highly valued. 

 When the new Physiological Laboratory at Cambridge was being planned, 

 and later, before it was occupied, he did much to make the arrangements 

 satisfactory and efficient. 



Keith Lucas was keenly interested in and enjoyed his work as a teacher, 

 both in his College classes and in his University lectures and demonstra- 



* ' Dictionary of National Biography ' and ' Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society,' February, 1855 ; ' Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,' 

 February, 1863. 



