Joseph Lucas

Joseph Lucas (12 April 1834 – 27 December 1902) was a lamp manufacturer and the founder of electrical equipment manufacturer Lucas Industries.

Career Born in Carver Street, Hockley, Birmingham, England in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter and educated at a local Church Sunday School, Joseph Lucas was apprenticed to H. & G.R. Elkington, Silversmiths, in 1847.

In 1860 he established a business selling buckets, shovels and other oddments. They concentrated on the new types of lamp burning paraffin and petroleum for which there was considerable demand.

He died in Naples of typhoid after drinking contaminated water (he was a devout teetotaller and would not drink wine) when on a Mediterranean tour with his third wife. His body was brought back to England for burial, which took place on 14 January 1903 at St. Mary's Church, Moseley.

Family In 1854 he married Emily Stephens (1833–1885) and together they went on to have six children. In 1885 he married Maria Tyzack and in 1901 he married Mary Anne Owen (1850–1939).