William Ernest Lucas[1] DFC (16 January 1917[2] – 24 March 2018) was a British RAF officer and long-distance runner who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Lucas was born in London, the only child of a bricklayer who had served as a sergeant with the Northamptonshire Regiment during the First World War and had received the Military Medal.
[3] After leaving grammar school at 15 in 1932, he worked in London at several jobs, as a packer for a trading house, a clerk for a publisher and as an assessor for a insurance company.
[7] Following his first tour, Lucas was again posted to Scotland through late 1944, receiving a promotion to war-substantive flight lieutenant on 11 May 1944.
[9] While there, he met a fellow instructor, Wing Commander Hamish Mahaddie, as a result of which Lucas soon joined the Pathfinder Force in October 1944.
[10] For the remainder of the war, Lucas served with the Pathfinder Force, earning a mention in despatches in January 1945 and receiving the DFC in July.