Photo: James Pasby
The headstone reads:-
(In loving memory of?)
Sergt. J. Lucas R.F.A.
who died Nov 20th 1918
through the effects of gas
received in action in France
aged 35 years
Also Bomb. W.J. Lucas R.F.A.
who died April 18th 1921
through the effects of gas
received in action in France
Aged 25 years
Also Charles
dearest brother of the above
who died Jan. 28th 1912
aged 30 years
also Mary Lucas
mother of the above
who died Feb. 14th 1924
aged 63 years
Julie Villar has sent the following:
I am Joseph Lucas’s sister’s great granddaughter.
We have his parents' family Bible and what I know is this: he was one of several children born to Charles and Mary Lucas (née Tate). He was clearly his mother’s favorite child and his sisters (Margaret Jane, Gertie and Mary Agnes, to name a few) doted on him. He was gassed in action and his mother tried for several years to bring him home from the sanitarium which was very far from their home in South Shields. She wrote very movingly of it in the family Bible (I believe it is lost but I may have a typed up version of it somewhere). He finally came home and passed away a week later. His mother loved him very much and posted an in memoriam ad every year on the anniversary of his death until she died 2 years later.
There are three obituaries from unidentified newspapers which read:
Lucas – South Shields. – 10 Collingwood Street, on November 20th, 1918, aged 36 years. Sergeant J. Lucas, R.F.A., killed from gas received in action, the dearly beloved son of Charles and M Lucas. To be interred in Westoe Cemetery on Sunday at 2.30. All friends and fellow workmen kindly invited. He answered his country's call.
Lucas: 10 Collingwood Street – on 20th inst. Sergt. Joseph Lucas, late R.F.A., died of ? received in action. Deeply mourned by Aunt Lizzie and cousins.
Lucas – In loving memory of my dear son, Bombdr. William John Lucas, R.F.A. who died April 18th 1921 in his 25th year. We think of him in silence, no eye can see us weep, but deep within our hearts concealed his memory we shall keep. Ever remembered by his loving mother, sister and . . Neither Joseph or William John is remembered on a local War Memorial. There is no CWGC entry for Bdr. William John Lucan
