Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

was on the other side in the Civil War: he played a leading part in the Royalist seizure of Colchester Castle in 1648, and was shot without trial after Parliamentary forces recaptured it. Gibson’s great-grandson, Gibson Lucas III (1732-1790), Bunny’s great-grandfather, became lord of the manor of Filby, six miles north-west of Yarmouth. All Saints’ Church at Filby contains memorial tablets and stained glass windows to several members of the Lucas family. In the nineteenth century, the Lucases were at the heart of an influential network of gentry and clerical families in a group of small, remote parishes in the hundred of East Flegg on the Norfolk coast. 7 Gibson Lucas IV (1768-1848) was the chief owner, lord of the manor, patron and incumbent of Filby, and in 1798 he married Mary Anne Salmon (1778-1846). Her father, Benjamin Wymberley Salmon, was rector of three of the parishes, and was appointed domestic chaplain to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV) in 1805. Gibson Lucas IV had four sons, of whom the third, Orton, was Bunny’s father. The eldest son, the fifth and last Gibson in the line, did not inherit the estate, but became Rector of St Lawrence, Southampton. His son, Bunny’s cousin Charles Frank Lucas, was a right-handed bat and excellent long-stop who, from 1864 to 1880, played fourteen matches for Hampshire and three for the Gentlemen of the South, as well as many non-first-class games for the Gentlemen of Hampshire. His finest performance was in Hampshire’s ten-wicket win against Surrey in 1866, when he opened the innings and was last out for 135 in a total of 281. After Gibson Lucas IV’s death, his second son, Charles Lucas (1804-1889), became lord of the manor, patron and rector of Filby, where in 1873 he owned 1,543 acres. In 1836 WilliamWhite described Filby as ‘a small parish and straggling village’; nowadays it is a popular holiday place, with boating and wildlife among the attractions. In 1848 Charles married Frances Belgrave, daughter of the Rector of Preston, near Uppingham. Their son, Percy Montagu, was the father of Percy Belgrave ‘Laddie’ Lucas, the well-known golfer, writer, Conservative MP, World War II fighter pilot and brother-in-law of Douglas Bader, whose biography he wrote. Bunny and Laddie Lucas were therefore first cousins once removed. One of Laddie Lucas’s golf partners was Leonard Crawley, who between the wars won the Amateur Championship, played in four Walker Cup sides and 97 internationals, and played cricket for Worcestershire and Essex. 8 Gibson IV’s youngest son, William Salmon Lucas (1817-1857), was the father of Arthur (1851-1921), Bunny’s cousin and perhaps the closest to him of the extended Lucas family. Evidently academically gifted, Arthur won an exhibition to Uppingham School, where in 1870 he was in the The Lucas family 10 7 This paragraph based mostly on William White’s Norfolk directories for 1836 and 1845. 8 See Dictionary of National Biography entries for Laddie Lucas and Crawley.