Joseph Lucas

Born in Carver Street, Hockley, Birmingham, England^[1] 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.^[2]

In 1860 he established a business selling buckets, shovels and other oddments.^[2] In 1872 he admitted his son, Harry, into his business and within three years they opened the Lamp Works in Little King Street in Birmingham.^[3] They concentrated on the new types of lamp burning paraffin and petroleum for which there was considerable demand.^[2] The business became Lucas Industries.^[4]

He died in Naples of typhoid after drinking contaminated water (he was a devout teetotaller and would not drink wine)^[2] 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.^[2]

In 1854 he married Emily Stephens (1833–1885) and together they went on to have six children.^[2] In 1885 he married Maria Tyzack and in 1901 he married Mary Anne Owen (1850–1939).^[2]