Thomas Pennington Lucas was a Scottish-born Australian medical practitioner, naturalist, author, philosopher and utopianist.
Background
Lucas was born in Dunbar, Scotland to Samuel Lucas, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Elizabeth Broadhurst. Lucas inherited from his father a love of natural history and a lifelong determination to reconcile his strong religious beliefs with his scientific convictions, as evidenced in many of his books Because his father was often on the move to new postings, taking his family with him, Thomas was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School at Stratford-on-Avon, Helston Grammar School, Cornwall, and New Kingswood School in Bath.
Career
Having developed tuberculosis, in 1876 Thomas Lucas migrated to Melbourne, Australia where he set up a medical practice. Arthur followed him to Melbourne in 1883 and became a well known biologist and schoolmaster in his own right. Lucas and his family moved to Brisbane, Queensland in 1886.
His medical practice was first set up in central Brisbane, moving in the early 1890s to South Brisbane.
Later he relocated to Acacia Ridge south of Brisbane, then finally to New Farm in inner north Brisbane from 1911 until Lucas"s death. A firm believer in the medicinal properties of pawpaws, he developed and marketed Lucas" Papaw Ointment, which is still produced by Lucas"s descendants from a location at Beaudesert Road, Acacia Ridge.
In 1882 Thomas Lucas founded the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. During his lifetime he collected a large number of butterfly and moth specimens, some of which eventually found their way into the possession of the South Australian Museum.
Membership
Lucas was a member of various learned societies including the Linnean Society, the Royal Society, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the British Medical Association in England. And the Linnean Society of New South Wales, the Royal Society of Queensland, and the Natural History Society of Queensland.