Monday 5 November 2012

Talk: An officer and a gentleman B-G Cuthbert Lucas

An interesting talk will be held on Thursday 8 November at Clare Museum entitled An Officer and a Gentleman: Brigadier General Cuthbert Lucas.

It will tell the tale of Brigadier General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas who was captured by the IRA while on a fishing expedition near Fermoy, Co Cork, on 26 June 1920. The month that followed saw the largest manhunt ever mounted on Irish soil for a serving British officer, while the captors eluded discovery by moving the World War I veteran through a series of 'safe houses' in counties Clare and Limerick, from where he made his escape.

The story made international headlines and featured in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Singapore Times.

Back on English soil, the General's only public comment on the affair was that 'he had been treated as a gentleman by gentlemen', a view he maintained even in the face of possible court martial.

The talk will be presented by Olive Carey, co-ordinator of the Hastings Farmhouse Conservation Project, at 8pm at Clare Museum, Arthur's Row, off O'Connell Square, Ennis. It is a part of the Remembering the Stories series of free public talks organised to run alongside the Museum's current exhibition on WW1 and WW2, and marks the start of the Decade of Commemoration.

Details provided by Clare County Library blog.