Keith Lucas (neuroscientist)

Keith Lucas FRS (8 March 1879, Greenwich – 5 October 1916, Salisbury Plain) was a British scientist who carried out pioneering work in neuroscience at Trinity College, Cambridge.

He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated BA with a first-class in natural sciences in 1901.

"[2][3] During the First World War, as a captain in the Hampshire Aircraft Parks Royal Flying Corps (TA), based at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, he was engaged in experimental research into aerial navigation and early aeroplane compasses.

[2] Convinced that his experimental work in aviation would improve if he became a pilot, he attended a flying course at Upavon, where he was instantly killed on 5 October 1916, aged 37, when his aircraft BE2c 5389 collided in mid-air over Salisbury Plain with BE2c 4174, flown by 2Lt Geoffrey Plateras Lawson Jacques of the Central Flying School, who was also killed.

Lucas is buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery,[4] and is commemorated on the War memorial of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire After his death his wife Alys changed the family name, and, as Alys Keith-Lucas, edited a short book giving his background together with reminiscences of him and a list of his publications.