The
Family History of Arthur Robert Luker (Snr.)
(1864-1952)
Arthur Robert
Luker lived in the
family home with his wife and family in Leadsmithy Street Middlewich (
Arthur Robert Luker sometimes
known as "Arl" was born on
There are still two Luker
families living in the same area and attempts will be made to contact them and
others who may be related in
Arthur Robert Luker was
born in
The family emigrated to
Following the death of Annie Maria (c1920), Arthur Robert who was at that stage 58, married his housekeeper, Gertrude Victoria Todd (27th August 1899) who was much younger, in fact only 23, at the time of their marriage in 1922 at Ashfield NSW. The marriage resulted in the birth of two further children, Patricia (Pat) 28th July 1924 and Alan (24th November 1926).
Pat Luker, now Pat
Krecek-Luker, currently lives with her husband Jerry, in Tasmania and Alan with
his wife, Patricia (nee Mooney) in Black Rock, Victoria.
Charles the eldest child, a
printer by trade, married Ethel Bysouth and lived in Caulfield
Percy, who hated the name
and preferred to be called Tim, was a lithographic artist and at the age of 36
married Mary Brebner (referred to as Pex) in 1924 after serving three years at
the war. Their only child, Peggy Luker, was born in 1925 and currently lives in
a retirement village at
The third child, Emily born
23rd November 1899, married Albert Anderson but had no
children to survive them. Emily celebrated her 21st birthday shortly arriving
in
The fourth, a son, Arthur
Robert (Jnr.) known as Bob or Bobbie, also worked for the Nestles company in a
management position and in 1919 transferred to
Bob joined the army as a
warrant officer and before moving to
Bob Luker died at his home
in Five Dock (NSW) on 13th December 1950 and his wife Nellie (nee Grace)
died twenty years later, also at home, in 1970.
Bob and Nellie Luker lived
in Five Dock and had three children, Linda May (24th August 1916),
Russell Hulme (
Linda, known by some as
"Bunty", died in 1992 and was the eldest of Bobby's children. She
married Jack Tyler and had two children, Judy (1944) who married Bob Wood and
had three children,
Margaret Luker, the
youngest child, married Ken Clarke (1921) and still lives in the family home in
Five Dock. They have two children Geoff (1949) and Philip (1954) and two
grandchildren Julia (1981) and Bevan (1983) as a result of Geoff's marriage to
Tonette Freeman.
Russell Luker a builder by
trade, married Elsie (Jean) Hitchens on 7th November, 1940
at Parramatta (NSW) and had two sons, Ronald Russell (21st March, 1944) and
Raymond (Glenn) born 3rd August, 1946 (the author of this history).
Ronald Russell Luker
married Pauline McBrien (1944) in January, 1967 and has three daughters, Cherie
Gaye (1972), Renee Jane (1974) and Yvette Irene (1978).
Glenn
currently lives and works in the Sydney CBD. He married Carolyn Gail Gleeson
(1947) on 12th April 1969 and has two sons, Steven Daniel (1973) and Brett
Matthew (1975). Brett married Kelly Farrar on 9th June 2001 and
had their first child, Amelia Florence Luker, on 30th November 2004. Amelia is now the tenth generation of Luker.
Following the separation of
Russell Luker and his first wife in the 1950s Russell married Jean Elizabeth
Dickins (1930) in 1959 and had two further children, Arthur Robert (Rob) born
22nd June, 1960 and Catherine (Cathy) (9th December, 1964). Rob lives with his
wife Anita (nee Robel) in Queensland. Jean (nee Dickins) currently lives in
Victoria where her children were born and raised.
The youngest of the
children of Arthur Robert and Annie Maria Luker was Henry Reginald known as
Reg, born on 31st October, 1898. He was a qualified chemist and operated a
pharmacy in Horsham with his wife Beverly (Pinky) Barnes who along with her
twin sister, Beatrice (Bluey) Barnes, acquired their names as result of the
colour of the hair ribbons which were placed in their hair by the nurses when
they were born to identify them.
Reg and Pinky had three
children, James Barnes (Barney) Reginald (1933), Peter (1937) and Helen Beverly
(1942) all born in Horsham Victoria.
Barney married Eunice Noack
(1935) and had a son, Brenden born 1st September, 1965. Barney passed away in
December, 1994.
Peter married Pam Mary
Courtney (1941) in Horsham in 1962 and they had two children, Jenny Anne (1963)
who married Geoff Pike and Peter Charles (1964). Peter and Pam separated in
1975 and Peter married Carol Ann Hobbs (nee McRae) (1946) in 1985 and now lives
in South Australia. Peter (jnr.) and his partner Trudy Timbs had their first
child, a daughter Taylor Mary Luker, on 13th April, 1997.
Helen Beverley Luker
married Brian McMillan (1935) and have three children. The eldest, Deborah Anne
McMillan (1959) is now married to Richard John Shaw. Julie Helen McMillan was
born in 1961 and Christopher Brian McMillan, the youngest, in 1963.
Pink continues to live in
Horsham.
Before coming to Australia
with his wife and children Arthur Robert Luker was offered a choice of two
overseas positions by Nestles. We should all be grateful for the choice he made
for if he had chosen the alternative we would all be Swiss citizens today.
The Family of
Gertrude Victoria Todd (1899)
Gertrude, whose family came
from Scotland, married Arthur Robert Luker following the death of Annie Maria. From
the marriage Pat and Alan Luker were born. At the time Arty was in his
sixties and obviously a fit and healthy man. For a while Gertrude and Arthur
the licensees of the Golden Age Hotel at Beaufort.
His health continued and it
is said that at the age of eighty he came out of retirement and continued his
profession as an accountant with a Collins Street (Melbourne) accounting firm.
Pat Luker married Jerry
Krecek (1925) in 1950 and we are fortunate that Jerry favoured the Luker name
so much that he adopted it for his own and so commenced the
"Krecek-Luker" name. Their daughters carried the name until their
marriages, Patti Krecek-Luker (1956) to Michael Alexeeff and Karen Krecek-Luker
(1958) to Hayden Dwyer.
Patti and Michael have
three children Samuel (1984), Stephanie (1986) and Nicholas (1991). Karen and
Hayden also have three children Nathan (1976), Mardi (1981) and Caitlin (1986).
Alan Luker and his wife
Patricia (1930) (nee Mooney) visited Middlewich in search of the family home in
1995. I am told that it is a very small town but to their disappointment and to
ours the family home and draper's shop on Leadsmithy Street no longer exists
having been removed at some stage to make way for a park.
Alan and Pat have two
children and four grandchildren. Their eldest child, Robert (1951) married Pam
Frost and have Michelle (1976) and Bree (1978). The youngest, Marilyn (1953)
wed Stephen King and have Briony (1977) and Nathan (1978).
The Family of
Nellie May Grace (1893)
Nellie May Grace was the
wife of Arthur Robert (Bobbie) Luker and my grandmother. As such I have
investigated her family ancestors and have been able to trace them back to the
mid 1700's with the help of a previously unknown cousin, Dick Grace, still
living in Quainton Buckinghamshire, the village where the family has lived for
over 250 years.
Nellie was born at
Warrnambool Victoria on 3rd January, 1893. Her father, Charles Grace came to
Australia in 1872. He met his wife, Annie Maria Fuller who
was born in 1857 on board the ship "Black Eagle" while waiting to
berth in South Australia. They married on 13th September, 1878 at Cobden in
Victoria and had eight children.
In researching the Graces I
applied for a copy of the marriage certificate of Nellie's parents, Charles
Grace and Annie Maria Fuller, who were married in Cobden, Victoria in 1878. On
the copy of the page from the marriage register were three registrations. To my
astonishment directly above Charles and Annie Maria's was one other, dated
August 1878. It just happened to be the sister of my wife's great grandmother,
Annie McMillan. In fact, my wife's great grandmother, Mary
Ann McMillan, was recorded as the witness. It is amazing that over 100 years
earlier our paths had crossed.
The life of
Charles Luker
Charles was born on 12th
March, 1807 in Faringdon, Berkshire. He was the third son
of William Luker and Sarah Shepherd. Charles had three
brothers and three sisters. Ann a school mistress, was the eldest child born in
1800, William the first of the four boys born in 1802 was an organ builder.
Thomas, a publican, was the second son born three years before Charles in 1804.
The youngest child John born in 1811, went on to be a plumber. The other
children were Lettice (c1801) and Miriam (c1803).
William, a plumber by
trade, born in Faringdon in 1771, one of the eight children of John Luker (1736
- East Challow) and Elizabeth Shepherd (1736 - Faringdon). The Shepherds can be
traced back in Faringdon to Ferdinando Shepherd (c1685).
Sarah Shepherd was the
niece of her mother-in-law Elizabeth Shepherd who was in fact the sister of
Sarah's father James Shepherd (1749). Sarah and William were cousins.
John Luker (1736) was one
on eight children born to William Luker (c1690 - East Challow) and his wife
Ann.
Other families associated
with the Luker family in Faringdon and East Challow in the 1700s were Giles and
Hall.
Charles Luker grew up in Faringdon, Berkshire,
and took on the occupation of a linen draper. He was married twice and had a
total of nine children. He appeared to have spent all his adult life in
Gloucester. He was 31 when he first married and 44 at the time of his second
marriage. He was 60 when his last child was born.
The first marriage on 18th
September, 1838 was to Elizabeth Barrett who was born in
1817 and the second was to Emma Matilda Gardner born in 1825.
In the first marriage
Charles and Elizabeth Barrett lived in Barton Street Gloucester and had six
children.
Sarah Ann Luker born 1839
Charles Edwin Luker born
1842 married Elizabeth Sarah
Emily Luker born 13th
March, 1844 married John Cole
George Luker born 1845
Married Ellen Mary Orton
William Luker born 1847
married Sarah K.
John Herbert Luker born
1853 died in 1881 and married in 1874 to Harriet (1850)
Elizabeth Barrett was the
daughter of Charles W. Barrett and Sarah. She died on the 16th October, 1850.
In the second marriage to
Emma Matilda Gardner, the daughter of John and Esther
Gardner, on 24th August, 1852 he had seven children all born in Gloucester.
Louisa Luker born 1853
Jane Helen Luker born 1855
Thomas Luker a carpenter
born 1857
Albert Edward Luker born
1859
Frederick James Luker a
printers clerk born 5th May, 1861
Arthur Robert Luker a
solicitors clerk born 28th May, 1864
Henry Herbert Luker a
grocers clerk born 27th January, 1867
Charles Luker, the father,
died in Wotton Street Mary Gloucester in 1881 as did Emma Matilda in 1890.
Charle's younger brother
Thomas married Mary Duck and had four children. The eldest
Thomas was born in Faringdon in 1830 and emigrated to Cortland New York in 1857
where he married Elizabeth Scott. They had five children including two boys,
Charles Ross Luker and John Scott Luker.
Related Lukers
in Australia
In researching the Luker
history I have discovered two other related Luker families descending from the
Faringdon and Gloucester Lukers.
I have corresponded with
John Luker who lives in Runaway Bay, Queensland. John is a grandson of Charles
Edwin Luker the first born son of Charles Luker.
Richard Woodward Luker
lives in Glenelg, South Australia. Richard is the great great grandson of
Charles' father's brother John Luker (1773).
The Earliest
Luker Settlers in New South Wales
The first Lukers to appear
in Australia were George and Lucy (nee
Hobbs) Luker who married in Sydney in 1844 and lived in Paddington (Sydney).
They had twelve children. George was born in Bibury Gloucester in 1823. George
arrived in Sydney with his brother Thomas
in 1839.
The Origin of
the name "Luker".
According to a research of
surname dictionaries the name Luker apparently originated in Northern England
and means "looker" as in sentry or watch. There are several early
registrations in the 1600s where the name Luker and Looker are interlinked.
Acknowledgments
Among the many people who
provided information about the family I would like to thank two in particular.
The first is Lynne Luker of Plymouth UK. Although we have not traced any
connection between our families Lynne went to extraordinary lengths to help my
research in England. The second is Beatrice Levers of Surrey England. Beatrice
is a descendant of the Faringdon Lukers and provided all the family information
about that area. Since preparing this history I was contacted in June, 1997 by
John Loosley from Gloucester who was able to advise me of a further four
previously unknown children of Charles Luker.
Sydney Australia
last amended 4th December 2004