Luke Knight Vail 1858

Luke Knight Vail was born at Chapel Street, Prahran in 1858. A younger brother was born two years later, but died within the year, so Luke grew up as an only child. His father was a tailor who had come from London with his parents and four brothers. His mother had emigrated from Scotland or Ireland.
Luke married Catherine Jane Sergeant at his parents home in Chapel Street, according to the rites of the Baptist Church, in 1881. He was a tailor like his father, uncles and grandfather.

His father died in 1888 and ten years later his wife died after giving birth to their eighth child. After this Luke apparently left his family in the care of his ageing mother. We do not know if any of the family knew where he went but he died in Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1919. He had been working as a groom at the Sawmills Hotel there and had died of mitral stenosis and chronic nephritis.
One of his sons went to New South Wales. Malvern enlisted at Moore Park in Sydney in 1916 and married at Casino in 1917. However we do not know if he was in touch with his father.