Lucas was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in January 1944. The citation read: After an imposed rest period on ground duties, "flying a desk", in December 1944 Lucas asked to be given charge of an operational squadron again. After re-training on the two-crew Mosquito, Lucas took over command of No. 613 Squadron (City of Manchester) Squadron equipped with Mosquitos and based at Cambrai-Épinoy in France (Nord department). He immediately resumed his practice of "leading from the front", which gained the respect of the highly experienced squadron air crews. The squadron was involved in low-level tactical support missions and strikes. Between 1944 and 1945, he served with RAF Second Tactical Air Force in North-West Europe. He was awarded a Bar to his DSO in October 1945 for making numerous attacks on enemy communications, often in appalling weather conditions. He resigned his commission in 1945. After the war, he was encouraged to fight the 1945 general election as a Conservative and stood for Fulham West, where he lost to the sitting Member of Parliament (MP), Edith Summerskill, one of Labour's most prominent women in government following their landslide. At the 1950 general election, he was elected as Conservative MP for Brentford and Chiswick. He held the seat at the next two elections, but retired at the 1959 general election. He wrote a popular column for the "Sunday Express", and authored several books on golf and airmen around the world, as well as an idiosyncratic but much-admired history of the Second World War Siege of Malta. Lucas played in the 1947 and 1949 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team, being the captain in 1949. After the war, he was an administrator on the Sports Council. Although an amateur, he was influential in the founding of the professional tour in Europe in the early 1970s. At the time of his death, he was serving as a vice-president of both the Golf Foundation and the Association of Golf Writers. In 1957 he became the Managing Director of the Greyhound Racing Association replacing Francis Gentle who remained as Chairman of the company. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981. In April 1984, Eamonn Andrews surprised Lucas for "This Is Your Life". Lucas died at home in Chelsea on 20 March 1998. There is a commemorative plaque at Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich by the 3rd tee on the Himalayas course which marks the spot where Lucas used his local knowledge of the course to make an emergency landing after his Spitfire was crippled over northern France during the war.