Charles Lucas (28 July 1808 – 23 March 1869) was an English composer, cellist, conductor, publisher and from 1859 to 1866 third principal of the Royal Academy of Music.

He was a good and conscientious man rather than an able one, loved by his subordinates, the best of whom, Charles Lucas – who had served him faithfully and earnestly begged him not to retire – was elected Principal in his place.

The position ... was not one to attract any outsider of independent mind; the pay was small and the opportunity for self-advertisement almost nil; but Lucas knew Potter's work and carried it on.

Among its recipients have been Arnold Bax, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dora Bright, Guirne Creith, Edward German, Arthur Goring Thomas, Joseph Holbrooke, Emma Lomax and Stewart Macpherson.

[15] He also wrote an opera, The Regicide, to a libretto by Metastasio translated by Thomas Oliphant, the overture to which The Times described as "a spirited composition, very noisy and without any great originality".

[2][16] Not long before the composer's death an overture, Rosenwald, was performed by the Philharmonic Society at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on 8 June 1868.

The Charles Lucas Prize for composition, founded in his memory, was awarded by the Royal Academy of Music in the form of a silver medal.