
Charles Davis Lucas[1], VC (1834-1914),the first person to win the Victoria Cross for bravery, was born at Druminargle House, near Acton, on 19th February 1834.
Charles’s family was descended from the Lucases of Shane Castle, Co Monahan. Charles Poyntz Jnr had married Lucy Lucas in 1684.
He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1848, aged 13, as a midshipman. Joining the navy at such an early age was common at the time for the sons of gentlemen who were expected to become officers.
On 21st June 1854, he was aged 20 and serving as boatswain’s mate on HMS Hecla in the Baltic Sea, at the Battle of Bomarsund during the Crimean War. An unexploded shell, its fuse still burning, landed in the ship’s deck. Lucas rushed forward, lifted the shell, and threw it over the side of the ship; it exploded almost immediately, before it hit the water, but the ship was saved.
Due to bureaucratic delays, he was only the fifth person to formally be presented with the Victoria Cross, but the brave act for which he received it was the earliest to be rewarded with the medal.
When Lucas retired from the Royal Navy in 1873, aged 39, he was held the rank of Captain. Post-retirement, in 1885, he was given the honorary rank of Rear Admiral. He died in Kent in 1914, aged 80.
[1] See “Charles Davis Lucas VC” by Griffith Wylie, BIF Vol 9, 2003.