# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Herbert, Auberon Thomas

​HERBERT, AUBERON THOMAS, eighth Baron Lucas and eleventh Baron Dingwall (1876–1916), politician and airman, was born 25 May 1876. He was the second son of the Hon. Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert [q.v.], by his wife, Lady Florence Amabell, sister of Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, seventh and last Earl Cowper [q.v.]. His elder brother died as a child in 1882, and his mother died in 1886, leaving him heir general to his uncle, Earl Cowper. On Earl Cowper's death without issue in 1905, the baronies of Lucas and Dingwall devolved upon his nephew, who also became a co-heir to the barony of Butler.
Herbert was educated at Bedford grammar school and at Balliol College, Oxford, which he entered in 1895. In 1898 and 1899 he rowed at No. 7 in the university boat-race against Cambridge. In the South African War he acted as correspondent to The Times, and was wounded in the foot. The wound was mismanaged, and it was eventually found necessary to amputate his leg below the knee. After he became Lord Lucas he was private secretary for a year to the secretary of state for war, Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Haldane. As one of the few liberal peers he was marked out for preferment, and in 1908 he took office in Mr. Asquith's government as under-secretary of state for war; he held this position until 1911, when he was transferred to the Colonial Office as under-secretary. A few months later he was again moved, being appointed parliamentary secretary to the Board of Agriculture. In 1914 he became president of the Board of Agriculture, though without a seat in the Cabinet. He remained president until the coalition government was formed in 1915, when he retired.
During his short political career Lucas showed useful qualities, but to a man of his vigorous and daring temperament the call to more active service in the European War was irresistible. In spite of his physical disability and the fact that he had passed the standard age, Lucas joined the Royal Flying Corps, and proved himself a skilful pilot. He saw much service in Egypt, and then returned to England (1916) as an instructor. On one occasion a pupil whom he was training fell with him and was killed, but Lucas escaped. He was offered the command of a squadron ​but preferred to gain experience in France. He was only at the front for a short time, for on 4 November 1916 he made a flight over the German lines and did not return. He was reported missing, and on 4 December his death was officially announced by the War Office. He had made Wrest Park, his house in Bedfordshire, a hospital for the wounded, and he offered it as a home for disabled soldiers.
Lucas gained the regard and affection of many friends. He was fond of the open air, of fishing, and of observing bird life. His endurance in active pursuits was remarkable, and he walked the roughest ground like a sound man. Quiet and thoughtful, he paid much attention to the problems of the day, and had his life been prolonged he might have made a valuable statesman. After the War broke out the excitement of flying absorbed him, and it seemed to some of those who knew him best that he fell as he would have wished. He left behind him the memory of an attractive and gallant character.
Lucas was nominated a member of the Privy Council in 1912. He never married, and his only sister, the Hon. Nan Ino Herbert (born 1880), succeeded to his titles at his death.
[The Times, 4 December 1916; Balliol College War Memorial Book, 1924.]
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