Tom Caw Luke spent his early years on a farm, then six years in the Victorian Railways. He volunteered for missionary work with the Presbyterian Church and underwent training at the college in Belair, South Australia. For ten years from 1897 he worked at the Zambesi Industrial Mission, Central Africa, then, returning to Australia, became attached to the Presbyterian Home Mission, South Australia, serving at Koolunga and at Pinnaroo.
A man of great energy and good humour, he rejoiced in his Scottish heritage, and was instrumental in the formationof the Caledonian Society in Pinnaroo and Murrayville. He contributed to the Ballarat Courier, the Central Africa Times and the Pinnaroo and Border Times, writing as 'Auld Kirk'. In 1918, welcoming returned soldiers at the Pinnaroo railway station, he collapsed, and from then his health was permanently affected.
