Luke was born 23 December 1924 in the district of 'Old Road', St. Ann, Jamaica. His father was a Chinese immigrant and mother Sarah Marnon a local girl, a mixed descendant of the African slaves brought to Jamaica by English colonial powers. They had four sons in the order Luke, Uclin, Mansang and Tongin. Luke's parents opened a small provision shop in their little village and the business quickly prospered. They were a comparatively well-off family until Luke was about 9 years when a plague of rats descended and thoroughly ruined their business. Luke's father died a short while afterwards (some say of a broken heart). With their father's death all contact and relations in China were permanently lost. It also effectively broke all ties with the local Chinese community. Their father's death and loss of the business ruined the family's finances and they were plunged into hardship. For the next few years they would struggle as a family to make ends meet and hold on to what they had. It was very tough. Sometimes the only school lunch they could afford was home-cooked cornmeal with oil and water. For some other families this was dog food so the little Lamm boys would go off by themselves at lunchtime to eat in a hurry.