Brian John Michael Luck was born at Dane Court, Hartlip, the 11th child of 16 children born to Frederick Luck and his wife Harriet Elizabeth (Née Goord). Frederrick, who for some unknown reason changed his name to Locke in 1877, was the grandson of Thomas Luck who came to West Malling, living at Went House in 1824 where he died in 1857. Thomas was born at Ditton in 1765 where both his father George and grandfather William were owners of Ditton Court.
Thomas’s son Edward Thomas was responsible for building the present Hermitage early in the 19th century on the site of a former moated house in an area where Saxon artefacts have been found. Edward Thomas Luck is recorded as paying rates on the building in 1827, and before that he was probably living with his father, Thomas, at Went House.
Edward Thomas Luck was born in Middlesex in 1798 and lived at the Hermitage until he died in 1877. The property then passed to his son Everard Thomas Luck upon whose death in 1916 the property passed jointly to his widow and Brian Michael William Luck, the son of Colonel Brian John Michael Luck (first cousin once removed of Everard Thomas), but upon his son’s death in India in 1924 he became joint trustee with Everard Thomas’s widow, Gertrude, and upon her death in 1926 became the sole owner.
Brian John Michael Luck is recorded at the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich in 1891, and by 1911 was serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery at Gibraltar. When he resigned his commission in 1924 he was a Lieutenant Colonel. He married Marie Haig and as far as we can ascertain had two children, Brian Michael William and Frederick.
Colonel Brian Luck was a Justice of the Peace and a governor of both village schools. He had moved to a Flat at Cade House, shortly before his death in 1948.
