Lucas hall shakespeare biography

English-born schoolmaster, scientist and publisher

Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas (7 May 1853 – 10 June 1936) was an English-born schoolmaster, scientist and publisher who lived in Australia for over fifty years, and became the most renowned writer on Algae after William Henry Harvey

Early life

Lucas was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, the third son of the Rev. Samuel Lucas, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Elizabeth, née Broadhead. His father had a passion for geology and botany, and Arthur developed an interest in natural science. Lucas' early childhood was spent in Cornwall, and when he was around nine years of age a move was made to Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire. Here Lucas went to his first private school, but soon afterwards was sent to Kingswood School in Bath, where he was given a solid education in Classics, Modern Languages, and Mathematics. Lucas went to Balliol College, Oxford in 1870, with an exhibition, and associated with many people became the most distinguished of their time. He graduated with a fourth class honours degree in 1874, following pneumonia before his final examination, but he later won the Burdett-Coutts geological scholarship in 1876. Lucas then went to London to commence a medical course, and won the entrance science scholarship to the London Hospital in Whitechapel. When Lucas was halfway through his course his widower elder brother, Thomas Pennington Lucas, was ordered to leave England due to contracting tuberculosis and went to Australia.

School Master

Arthur Lucas abandoned his course, although was nevertheless awarded B. Sc. by University of London in 1879. He became a master at The Leys School, Cambridge in order to provide for his brother's three young children who remained in the UK. Lucas had previously won the gold medal at an examination for botany held by the Apothecaries Society, open to all medical studen

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Chapter One



STRATFORD 1564

Here begins the plague

...

Exit pursued by a bear: antigonus is torn to pieces. a clownish young shepherd witnesses his death on land and many more losses on the sea as a tempest-tossed ship is swallowed by the waves. “A sad tale’s best for winter,” little Prince Mamillius has said, before being struck by death himself. But Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale veers from tragedy to comedy. Young Shepherd’s breathless description of heavy matters is counterpointed against Old Shepherd’s amazed discovery of new life in the form of the abandoned baby Perdita. “Thou met’st with things dying,” he serenely remarks to his son, “I with things new born.”

In Shakespeare’s England, birth and death went cheek by jowl. Each entry in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon- Avon, is encoded with a single letter: C for christened, M for married, and B for buried. A ceaseless procession of birth, copulation, and death: human life stripped to its essentials. Shortly after the entry that reads “1564, Apr. 26. C. Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere”—April 26, 1564, christened, William, son of John Shakespeare—the entries marked B begin to thicken on the page. There were no more than twenty deaths in the first half of 1564, well over two hundred in the second. The population of this small but prosperous market town in the English Midland county of Warwickshire was about fifteen hundred, so more than one in seven were taken in those few months of devastation. The cause is duly noted in a marginal annotation opposite the burial entry for

​Lucas, Arthur Henry Shakespeare, M.A., B.Sc., son of the Rev. Samuel Lucas, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, was born in 1853. He was an exhibitioner at Matriculation at London University in 1870, and in the same year matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, of which he was exhibitioner until 1874. In 1872 he was first class in Mathematical Moderations; in 1874 he took honours (Ægrotat) in Mathematics and Physics; in 1876 was Burdett-Coutts University Geological Scholar; and in 1877 he graduated B.A. and M.A. at Oxford. During the years 1876 and 1877 Mr. Lucas was senior Science scholar, prizeman in Botany, and certificated in Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical School; in 1877 gold medallist in Botany, Apothecaries' Hall, London; and from 1877 to 1882 assistant master (Mathematics and Natural Science) at the Leys School, Cambridge. After his arrival in Victoria Mr. Lucas was from 1883 assistant master and lecturer (Mathematics and Natural Science) at the Wesley College, Melbourne; in 1884-5 lecturer and tutor in Natural Science, Ormond College; from 1886 lecturer and tutor in Natural Science, Trinity College, Melbourne University; from 1884 to 1886 hon. prosector to the Zoological Society of Victoria; 1885-7 Vice-President of the Microscopical 8ociety of Victoria; 1884-7 Vice-President of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria; and in 1887 President of that Club. In 1888 he became Senior Fellow and tutor in Mathematics and Natural Science at Queen's College, Melbourne University. Mr. Lucas, since his arrival, has contributed papers on scientific subjects to the Royal Society of Victoria, the Microscopical Society, and to the Field Club; as also in former days to the Geological Magazine. He has edited the Victorian Naturalist from its first issue. On his proposal the Royal Society in 1888 appointed a committee ​to initiate a biological survey of Port Philli

Lucas, Arthur Henry Shakespeare (1853 - 1936)

Born at Stratford-on-Avon, England, on 7 May 1853 and died at Albury, N.S.W., on 10 June 1936.

His father was a Wesleyan Minister, with the usual very modest stipend which did not allow him to pay for his son at a university, but young Lucas won scholarships at Oxford and at medical school in London. Halfway through the medical course he sacrificed his medical career on the death of his father and because of the necessity to financially support his brother’s three young children; this he was able to do by accepting a mastership at Leys School, Cambridge.

In 1883 Lucas was appointed Mathematics and Science Master at Wesley College, Melbourne, and was later Headmaster at Newington College, Stanmore, Sydney (1892-98). In 1899 he became Mathematics and Science Master at the Sydney Grammar School, where he remained until the end of 1923; during World War I he was acting Headmaster and, later, Headmaster. For many years he was examiner in Chemistry at Sydney Technical College and, during the absence of Professor David, assisted with lectures in Geology and Physiography at the University of Sydney.

He was a member of the Linnean Society of New South Wales and contributed 14 papers to its proceedings, at first on lizards but later on marine algae on which he was considered an acknowledged authority. During his later years he was Honorary Specialist for Algae to the National Herbarium, Sydney, and wrote the article on Algae in the Australian Encyclopaedia.

When he was 70 he accepted the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Tasmania as acting Professor. Subsequently, the Commonwealth Government sent him to Western Australia to report on economic possibilities in that State.

After his death Part I of The Seaweeds of South Australia (1936) was issued by the South Australian Branch of the British Science Guild. The personal esteem with which he was held is clearly seen in the Memorial Notice in Proc.