Emma Elizabeth Man was born on 24 November 1829 at 33 Apollo Buildings, Walworth, Surrey, the daughter of Harry Stoe and Caroline Louisa (Fowle) Man.  She was baptized on 29 January 1830 at St. Peter’s, Walworth..

She married Charles Edward Walch on 27 February 1861 at St. Margaret’s, Halstead, Kent.

Emma died (of Tuberculosis), aged 32, on 16 November 1863 at Magdalen Road, Hastings, Sussex, and was buried 23 November 1863 at St. Margaret’s, Halstead, Kent.

Charles Edward Walch was born on 8 May 1830 in Cannanore, Kerala, India, the son of James William Henry and Eliza (Nash) Walch.  After the death of his wife, he married Fanny Eugenia Birch at Hobart, Tasmania, Australia and went on to have ten children.  Charles died on 25 March 1915, in Hobart, Tasmania.

Emma and Charles belong to Man Generation Eight; their child belongs to Man Generation Nine and is:

1. CAROLINE ELIZA MARY (1862 – 1864)

[References: Emma’s birth and baptism – FHL Film # 0307704; her marriage – record from a film viewed at Kent RO; her death – copy of her death certificate; her burial – record from a film viewed at the Kent RO.  Charles’ birth – FHL # 1396166; his second marriage and his death – Tasmania Archival record.]

Hubert Man’s notes are as follows: “Emma Elizabeth Man daughter of Henry Stoe Man born Nov 24^th 1829 christened at St. Peter’s Walworth, sponsors Betty Fowle, Emma Man (aunts) & H. S. Man father. She was a very pretty cheerful girl, a bit of a tomboy, always playing with her brothers. She died at Hastings suddenly of scarlet fever (?)”.  In his autobiography Charles Walch never mentions his marriage to Emma nor their daughter.

Emma’s sister-in-law, Henriette (Fowle) Man, the wife of Harry Edward Julius Man died a day earlier at the same place. Below the death registry of Emma’s daughter who died one year after her mother.

Below is Charles’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography:

WALCH, CHARLES EDWARD (1830-1915), bookseller and lay preacher, was born on 8 May 1830 at Cannanore, Kerala, India, son of Major James William Henry Walch, 54th Regiment, and Eliza, nee Nash. The family returned from India to England in 1837 but, probably influenced by Henry Hopkins, they migrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1842 in the Royal Saxon and were granted 300 acres (121 ha) in the Westbury district. About three years later they moved to Hobart Town, where Walch’s father bought the bookselling business of S. Tegg; with his eldest son James Henry Brett he traded as J. Walch and Son; another son was G. Walch.

In 1845 Walch was apprenticed for five years to Captain William Crosby in the barque Jane Francis, trading between Hobart and London. He spent two more years as an able-seaman and second officer but, soon after his father’s death in 1852, went to the Victorian gold diggings. Unsuccessful, he returned to Tasmania intending to go back to sea. But J. Walch and Son had prospered and his brother offered him a partnership and position as buyer in London, where he worked in 1854-58. Growth of business in Tasmania led to his recall, but he returned to London in 1861 to buy stock and printing machinery and engage tradesmen. Walch’s Literary Intelligencer, first produced in 1859 and edited by him for some fifty years, and Walch’s Tasmanian Almanack became standard references.

In England Walch had joined the Young Men’s Christian Association and the King’s Weigh-House Chapel, in Eastcheap, under Rev. Thomas Binney. Back in Tasmania he took charge of a Sunday school held in the Ragged School building, Collins Street, Hobart; later he became a regular teacher and was superintendent for thirty-five years of the Davey Street Congregational Church Sunday School. He sought new and improved teaching methods on which he gave lectures and published pamphlets. In 1868 he led 516 teachers and 4618 children in an ode of welcome to the Duke of Edinburgh. He became a well-known Congregational lay preacher and an advocate of the principles of competitive business.

In 1874 Walch opposed plans to build showgrounds and buildings on the Queen’s Domain and later became chairman of a committee to advise on its use. He was a member and sometime chairman of the Central School (Bathurst Street) Board in Hobart and campaigned successfully for new buildings. In evidence to the 1882 select committee on education he criticized the Board of Education for ‘the want of a head to the department’. He moved resolutions at a Town Hall meeting in 1875 supporting the public works proposals of the Kennerley government, and again in 1876 protesting against the proposed closure of the Hobart-Launceston railway line. He was a director of the Commercial Bank and other companies, and a foundation member of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Among Walch’s many writings was The Story of the Life of Charles Edward Walch, with a Selection of his Writings, printed in 1908 for private circulation. He was married twice; first at Halstead, Kent, England, on 27 February 1861 to Emma Elizabeth (d.1863), youngest daughter of Henry Stoe Man, R.N.; their daughter died in 1864; next year he married Fanny Eugenia Clara, daughter of George Birch; they had four sons and six daughters. He died at his home in Davey Street, Hobart, on 25 March 1915 survived by his wife and five daughters. His estate was sworn for probate at 42,855.

Select Bibliography
Cyclopedia of Tasmania, vol 1 (Hob, 1900); P. Bolger, Hobart Town (Canb, 1973); Votes and Proceedings (House of Assembly, Tasmania), 1882 (106); Mercury (Hobart), 26 Mar 1915; indexes and correspondence file under C. E. Walch (Archives Office of Tasmania). More on the resources

Author: Neil Smith: ‘Walch, Charles Edward (1830 – 1915)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp 337-338.