The Notorious Third Lord Lucan: An Embattled Life

 In his book The Notorious Third Lord Lucan: An Embattled Life scientist, author and biographer Tom Blaney provides an interesting look on the life of the Third Lord Lucan.

Who was the Third Lord Lucan? And why was he considered to be "notorious"? And why might his life have been viewed as "embattled"?

Blaney's interest in the Third Lord Lucan when he lived in an apartment within Laleham house, which had been the home of the Third Lord Lucan.

Blaney alludes to the more recently famous seventh Lord Lucan, a troubled professional gambler who, after being implicated in the murder of the family nanny and the severe injuries to his wife vanished, never to be seen again.

However the third Lord Lucan is the subject of this book and in a number of ways including his involvement in the Crimean War as an officer, including the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade.

Blaney acknowledges a previous book published in 1953 The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Woodham-Smith points to certain character flaws within the makeup of the third Lord Lucan. In her book she brings attention to the fact that Lord Lucan had a very bad reputation as an absentee landlord in Ireland. With arguably good reason he was known as "the Great Exterminator" due to his actions and inactions as a landowner. He also had a reputation as being an army officer of a less than glorious reputation, especially during the Crimean War.

Lord Lucan's reputation was traduced by the book written by Woodham-Smith and in the 1968 film The Charge of the Light Brigade (based on that book) but was he really as bad as he was portrayed? Detailed and extensive research undertaken by Blaney indicates that the truth is somewhat different to that previous portrayed by Lord Lucan's detractors. 

He has worked hard to provide a more balanced and less hysterical view of the third Lord Lucan. He has drawn a more full and far more accurate picture of Lord Lucan. Yes, as with everyone of us humans, he had flaws but he was not, as Blaney proves admirably, not the monstrous caricature foisted on the public by those who should have known better in your reviewer's opinion.

The book is illustrated with contemporary images and will be much admired by those with a love for history and high quality research.

It is published by Matador in hardback at £20.