Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry (Carabineers) Officers 1871 Pattern Helmet of Lord Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas and 5th Lord Dingwall, who Died of Wounds in November 1916 Serving as a Fighter Pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, Being Shot Down and Died as a Prisoner of War the Same Day, Superb example being white metal shell with large gilt metal starburst helmet plate to the centre with frosted silver kings crowned strap having HAMPSHIRE CARABINIERS and gilt Hampshire rose to the centre. Gilt brass rosette side bosses with leather backed linked chin chain. Helmet has gilt metal cross base and fluted plume holder. Green leather underside to the peaks and quilted liner system. Helmet is complete with the original chamois storage cover and housed in its original japanned metal storage tin having engraved name plaque ‘Lord Lucas The Hampshire Carabiniers’. Inside the tin is a old paper label which is inked, ‘Officers Helmet (Lord Lucas) AUBERON THOMAS HERBERT 8TH BARON LUCAS & 11TH BARON DINGWALL. CAPT HAMPSHIRE CARABINIERS & F/Cdr ROYAL FLYING CORPS’ the reverse of the label ‘He flew a plane over the German lines on 3rd nov 1916 from which he did not return and his death on that date has been officially announced’. The helmet shows almost no service wear and all the fire gilding remains bright as does the frosted silver centre of the helmet plate. Helmet has no dress plume. The Lord Lucas was born on 25th May 1876. He was the second but eldest surviving son of the Honourable Auberon Herbert, younger son of Henry Herbert 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. His mother was lady Florence, daughter of George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper. He was educated at Bedford School and then Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed a Captain in the Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers) and worked as a war correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa. He was wounded in this conflict and ended up loosing a leg. His elder brother, Rolf, had died in 1882 and his mother in 1886 and so in 1905 (as the nearest heir) he inherited the barony of Lucas and the lordship of Dingwall (which are able to pass through female lines) from his maternal uncle, the 7th Earl Cowper. However, it was not until 1907 that he was confirmed in the titles by the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords and allowed to take his seat in the House of Lords. Lucas was private secretary to Richard Haldane, the Secretary of State for War, from 1907 to 1908. In April 1908 he was appointed to his first ministerial post as Under-Secretary of State for War (with a seat on the Army Council) by H. H. Asquith, a post he held until 1911. He was Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies between March and October 1911 and then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries from 1911 to 1914. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1912 and in August 1914 he entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. However, he did not hold office in the coalition government formed by Asquith in May 1915. Lucas also played a prominent part in David Lloyd George’s Land Campaign.In WW1 he gained a commission as a Captain in the Royal Flying Corps, where he qualified as a pilot. He originally served in Egyptian theatre before coming back to England and then onto the Western Front, serving with No14 Squadron. He died of wounds when his aircraft was brought down behind enemy lines on 3rd November 1916. It appears he was taken prisoner of war, but died of his wounds the very same day. He was buried in a war grave in the village of Ecoust-Saint-Mein. The Imperial War Museum has a copy of his obituary, ‘News had previously been received that Lord Lucas was missing. He had been serving with the Royal Flying Corps in France, and made a flight on November 4 over the German lines, from which he did not return. He is now officially reported to have died. Captain Lord Lucas, Hampshire Yeomanry and Royal Flying Corps, was born in 1876, the son of the Hon. Auberon Herbert (a younger son of the third Farl of Carnarvon) by his marriage with the sister of the seventh and last Pari Cowper, who also held, among other titles, the baronies of Lucas and Dingwall. Fie succeeded to these baronies on his uncle’s death in 1905. Educated at Bedford School and Balliol, Lord Lucas rowed 7 in the Oxford boat in 1898 and 1899. During the South African War, in which he was acting as a correspondent of The Times, he was wounded and his leg had to be amputated below the knee. After a year as private secretary to the Secretary for War, he was appointed Under-Secretary at the War Office in 1908; from this post he passed in 1911 to the Under-Secretaryship for the Colonies ; and later in the same year became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture. He was keenly interested in agriculture and a great nature-lover. In 19J4 he entered the Cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture, and held this office until the formation of the Coalition in May of last year, when he was one of the Ministers who retired. He at once gave up political work and joined the Royal Flying Corps, though he was many years over the standard age for this arm. Proving a skilful pilot, he soon gained his certificate and went out to Egypt, where he saw a good deal of service. On his return to England he was engaged for some months in instructing recruits for the Royal Flying Corps. A few months ago, while he was coa’ching a pilot, his machine dived and the pilot was killed, but Lord Lucas escaped. He was offered the command of a squadron but refused promotion until he had gained experience on the Western Front. He had only recently gone out to France. Lord Lucas had converted Wrest Park, his seat in Bedfordshire, into a hospital for the wounded, and offered it as a home for disabled soldiers after the war. He was unmarried, and the Lucas and Dingwall baronies pass by special remainder to his only sister the Hon. Nan Ino Herbert, who was born in 1880. The second heiress is Lady Desborough, who is also co-heiress with her and the children of the Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Walter Kerr to the barony of Butler’ They also have a photograph of him in officers uniform of the Hampshire Yeomanry. Late Rod Flood collection