Bryan Keith-Lucas CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (previously Bryan Lucas, born Fen Ditton

Fen Ditton

Fen Ditton is a village on the northeast edge of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. The parish covers an area of Fen Ditton lies on the east bank of the River Cam, on the road from Cambridge to Clayhithe, and close to junction 34 of the A14...

, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, 1 August 1912, died Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, 1996) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 political scientist.

Education

The son of Keith Lucas ScD

Scd

-In medicine:* Schnyder corneal dystrophy* Semen collection device* Sequential compression device an intermittent pneumatic compression system intended to reduce blood clot formation* Sickle-cell disease...

 FRS, a physiologist and instrument designer, Keith-Lucas (who changed his surname in honour of his father) was educated at Gresham's School

Gresham's School

Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...

, Holt

Holt, Norfolk

Holt is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the...

, and Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...

, where he read history and economics.

Career

Bryan Keith-Lucas joined the town clerk's department at Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and qualified as a solicitor in 1937. During the Second World War he served with the Buffs and Sherwood Foresters

Sherwood Foresters

The Sherwood Foresters was formed during the Childers Reforms in 1881 from the amalgamation of the 45th Regiment of Foot and the 95th Regiment of Foot...

 in north Africa, Italy, and Cyprus, and was Mentioned in Despatches, ending the war as a major.

He then returned to local government in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

. In 1948 he became senior lecturer in local government at Oxford University, and in 1950 a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford

Nuffield College, Oxford

Nuffield College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is an all-graduate college and primarily a research establishment, specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. It is a research centre in the social sciences...

. He served as an Oxford city councillor for the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

, sat on several government committees, and advised on aspects of local government for Britain's former colonies.

In 1965 he was appointed professor of government at the new University of Kent at Canterbury

University of Kent

The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...

, and from 1970 to 1974 he was Master of Darwin College, Kent

Darwin College, Kent

Darwin College is the fourth oldest college of the University of Kent, an English institution in the United Kingdom. It was opened in 1970.- Namesake :After heavy debate, it was named after Charles Darwin, the biologist...

. He retired in 1977 and taught politics part-time at King's School, Canterbury. In the last years of his life, he lived at Wye, Kent.

Family

Keith-Lucas married Mary Hardwicke in 1946. They had a son, and two daughters. He was the brother of David Keith-Lucas

David Keith-Lucas

David Keith-Lucas CBE was an aeronautical engineer.-Early life:David Keith-Lucas was one of the sons of Keith Lucas, who invented the first aeronautical compass. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read engineering.-Career:He was an...

 (1911-1997), an aeronautical engineer, and of Alan Keith-Lucas

Alan Keith-Lucas

Alan Keith Lucas was a social worker and professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who worked primarily with residential childcare.-Early life:...

.

Publications

• The English Local Government Franchise (1952)
• The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors (1961)
• History of Local Government in England by Josef Redlich and Francis Wrigley Hirst (editor of 2nd edition, 1970)
• English Local Government in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1977)
• A History of Local Government in the 20th Century (with P. G. Richards, 1978)
• The Unreformed Local Government System (1980)
• Parish Affairs (1986)
• A Kentish Parson (with Dr G. M. Ditchfield, 1991)

Sources

• Keith Lucas by John K. Bradley in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004)
• Who's Who 1993 (A. & C. Black, London, 1993)