LUCAS – Reginald Jaffray

(28 December 1865 – 9 May 1914)

SECRETARY OF ETON RAMBLERS 1884-1889

Reginald Lucas was Captain of the XI in 1883/84, and succeeded to the Secretaryship of the Ramblers the next year. By 1886 he was an unhappy man – he reported that “The Eton Ramblers showed little or no improvement in 1886. The matches were few in number and no desire was evinced on the part of members to play for the Club”. 1887/88 and 1889 showed little improvement – and the secretary had had enough. “I resign the Hon Secretaryship of the Club. It is difficult to maintain an organisation in a flourishing condition when there is such an astonishing absence of internal energy and interest…. Vale! Floreat Etona.” This gave rise to Arthur Dunn’s meeting of 1890 which reinvigorated the Ramblers.

He went into politics as Private Secretary to two Unionist Chief Whips and was Conservative MP for Portsmouth from 1901 to 1906 when he did not seek re-election. He wrote several books, including the highly regarded “George II and his ministers”.

In 1914 he contracted tuberculosis of the lungs, and shot himself at home on 9 May 1914.