Lucas, Arthur Henry Shakespeare (1853 - 1936)

Summary

Arthur Lucas, who was born and educated in England, came, as mathematics and science master, to Wesley College, Melbourne in 1883. He was later headmaster of Newington College, Sydney 1892-1898 and then taught at Sydney Grammar School 1899-1923. Lucas was an active participant in scientific societies in Australia, serving as President of both the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (F.N.C.V.) and the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He was heavily involved in the campaign of the F.N.C.V. to establish a national park at Wilsons Promontory (ultimately established in 1898) and in the initiation of a biological survey of Port Philip. Lucas wrote widely on the Australian fauna and was a recognised authority on Australian marine algae. For over 20 years Lucas was Honorary Curator of Algae at the herbarium of New South Wales.

Details

Chronology

1870 - 1874

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Oxford, England

1874 - 1877

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Oxford, England

1878 - 1882

Career position - Teacher, Leys School, Cambridge

1879

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of London

1881 - 1936?

Award - Fellow, Geological Society, London

1883 - 1891

Career position - Mathematics and Science Master, Wesley College, Melbourne

1884 - 1892

Career position - Editor, Victorian naturalist

1887 - 1889

Career position - President, Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1892 - 1898

Career position - Headmaster, Newington College, Sydney

1893 - 1936

Career position - Member, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1894 - 1936

Career position - Council Member, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1899 - 1916

Career position - Mathematics and Science Master, Sydney Grammar School

1907 - 1909

Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1909

Career position - President, Section E (Geography), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1916 - 1919

Career position - Acting Headmaster, Sydney Grammar School

1920 - 1923

Career position - Headmaster, Sydney Grammar School

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Botany), Australian National Research Council

1923

Career position - Chair of Mathematics and Acting Professor, University of Tasmania

1934

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus lucasii Blakely was named in his honour

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Baldwin Spencer - Records, 1880 - 1929, ML MSS 29; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas - Records, 1853 - 1936; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Lucas, A. . S., The algae of Commonwealth Bay (Sydney: Government Printer, 1919), 28 pp. Details
• Lucas, A. H., Scientist: His Own Story, 1 vols (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1937). Details
• Lucas, A. H. S., The seaweeds of South Australia, part 1: introduction and the green and brown seaweeds (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1936), 103 pp. Details
• Lucas, A. H. S.; and Le Souëf, W. H. Dudley, The birds of Australia (Melbourne: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1911), 489 pp. Details
• Lucas, A.H.S.; and Perrin, F., The seaweeds of South Australia (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1936-1947), 458 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Ducker, Sophic C., 'Lucas, Arthur Henry Shakespeare (1853-1936), school master and biologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 163-164. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lucas-arthur-henry-7256. Details

Journal Articles

• A. H. S. L. [ie Arthur H. S. Lucas], 'Joseph Henry Maiden, 1859-1925 (Memorial series, no. 3)', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 55 (4) (1930), 355-370. Details
• Ducker, Sophie C., 'An early overland expedition to Wilsons Promontory', The Victorian naturalist, 115 (1998), 292-5. Details
• H. J. C. [ie Herbert J. Carter], 'Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas, 1853-1936 (Memorial series, no. 7)', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 62 (3/4) (1937), 243-252. Details
• Lucas, A. H. S., 'Charles Darwin on Australia', The Victorian naturalist, 2 (1885), 20-24. Details
• Lucas, A. H. S., 'Presidential address: the relations of science and government', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 33 (1908), 13-38. Details
• Lucas, A. H.S., 'A Pioneer Botanist in Victoria', The Victorian naturalist, 50 (12) (1933), 186-190. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2865141. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/3802231. Details
• 'Lucas, A H S (1853-1936)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-630849. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_l.html. Details
• Ducker, Sophie C., 'Port Phillip Heads: a phycological saga', Phycologia, 22 (1983), 431-443. https://doi.org/10.2216/i0031-8884-22-4-4. Details
• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Sprent, J. F. A., 'Ronald Harry Wharton 1923-83', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (2) (1985), 293-301. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9850620293. Details
• Willis, J. H., 'Botanical pioneers in Victoria - III', Victorian naturalist, 66 (7) (1949), 123-8. Details
• Willis, J. H., Botanical Pioneers in Victoria, vol. 66 ([Melbourne]: [Brown Prior Anderson], 1949), 19 pp. Details