Walter Ambrose Lucas Bailey was born in 1843 in Tasmania. He received his primary education in Hobart, and was sent to London at the age of 12 to finish his education. He was then apprenticed to a maker of surgical and veterinary instruments. However, after four years, Bailey returned to Australia to find his fortune in the gold rushes of Victoria and New South Wales. He spent three years chasing gold, before going into the sawmill business with his brothers first in Pahautanui, and then in Canterbury on Bank's Peninsula. Eight years later, he moved to the Rangitikei district, and started business as a timber merchant with his brother at Taonui. The business must have had some success, as it expanded to Halcombe in 1890. Two years later, Bailey and his brother moved the Halcombe business to Feilding and began working with a man named Mr. Cornfoot.
Bailey married in 1862 to Mary Ann Webb, of Canterbury. They had three daughters and two sons, the eldest of which managed the family farm at Taonui. Bailey was well-known among his community, being a Past Master of the Masonic Order, a Captain of the New Zealand Volunteer Officers, chairman of directors of the Feilding Building Society, chairman of the Racing Club Committee, chairman of the Taonui School Committee, and president of the Feilding Bowling and Football Clubs to name a few of his positions.
Bailey passed away in 1917, six years after his wife.