Keith Lucas

Keith Lucas FRS (8 March 1879, Greenwich – 5 October 1916, Salisbury Plain) was a British scientist who worked at Trinity College, Cambridge doing pioneering work in Neuroscience.

He was the son of Francis Robert Lucas and K. Lucas. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated BA with a first-class in Natural Sciences in 1901. In 1902 he worked in New Zealand, on the bathymetrical survey of the lakes, and he became a Fellow of Trinity in 1904. In 1907 he became an additional University Demonstrator in physiology, and in 1908 a Lecturer in Natural Sciences.

During the First World War, as a captain in the Hampshire Aircraft Parks Royal Flying Corps (TA), based at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough; he was engaged in experimental research work into aerial navigation and early aeroplane compasses.

He delivered the Royal Society Croonian Lecture in 1912. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1913. his candidacy citation read: "Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Lecturer on Physiology. Has made important contributions to physiological science, especially in relation to the processes of excitation ... Much of the work was only made possible by the highly ingenious improvements designed by the author in the apparatus used."''

He died when his aircraft collided with another in mid-air over Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He is buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery, and is commemorated on the War memorial of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire

His wife was Alys Keith Lucas. They had three sons, Professors Alan Keith-Lucas, David Keith-Lucas and Bryan Keith-Lucas