Ken Lucas

A SECOND World War veteran from Trowbridge who was Wiltshire Times ‘through and through’ has died at the age of 97.

Ken Lucas was born to Nelson and Edith Lucas on August 20, 1920.

The family moved from their home in Park Street to Whiterow Park when he was in his early teenage years.

An only child, he was awarded a scholarship to go from the former Park Street Junior School in the town to Trowbridge High Schoo,l as he excelled academically.

At the age of 15, he left school and joined the Wiltshire Times for a four-year stint as a typesetter, before he enlisted in the RAF for the Second World War.

The teenager was trained as a wireless operator and his role, based in Dorset, was to try and scupper the Nazi bomber planes’ efforts to find their targets by sending disrupting signals.

At the tail end of the war, he was flown out to India to carry out the same role, but on the way they stopped off in Egypt.

“They landed at night but when he woke up in the morning he saw he was right by the Great Pyramid of Giza,” said his good friend, Colin Webb.

Over the course of 1945, he was stationed in different parts of India, carrying out the same role.

When the war finished, he chose to take the long journey home to England by boat so that he could see as much of the world as possible.

Seven years after he left the Wiltshire Times, he rejoined the paper, and continued to work for the firm until his retirement in 1985 at the age of 65.

“I remember when he left he would tell me how he would not have allowed errors to slip through the net when he was working at the paper,” added Mr Webb.

Mr Lucas, who never married, was a huge Arsenal fan, a lover of travelling and he was also fascinated by steam trains and other types of machinery.

He enjoyed going to the former Fleur-de-Lys pub off Frome Road, Southwick, now replaced by housing named after it, and became good friends with the landlords Raymond and Eileen Webb.

“Me and my parents moved into the pub when I was three so I was aware of him pretty much all my life,” said Colin.

“He had a wicked sense of humour, was quite straight talking and he was very intelligent. He was also an excellent crib player.”

He lived independently in Whiterow Park until 2017, when he moved to Blenheim House Care Home in Melksham, where in 10 months he became a popular resident with the staff.

He died on June 19.

A date for his funeral has not yet been arranged, but donations in his memory will go to Dorothy House.