Rosamond was just 14 when she left England and sailed to join her brother, Alfred James in New York. She joined Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (pictured) as a stenographer.
Thomas Emptage
Seeking new opportunities and the chance to own land, in 1835 Thomas and his wife Ann, with their two tiny children, made the long trip from Thanet to Liverpool and then across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. Then followed a journey of 470 miles across country by covered wagon until they arrived in Wyandot County, Ohio.
William Daubney Emptage
William lied about his age when he joined the Kent Militia and then the 3rd Battalion East Kent “The Buffs” Regiment. He was a career soldier, serving in South Africa, Persia and Singapore. When he left the army he settled in Singapore where he married.
Alice Eva Emptage
Alice married in 1883, just before her sixteenth birthday and two years later she and her husband emigrated to Illinois, USA. Having given birth to a boy in 1886, Alice was to die in 1893, aged just 25.
Alfred James Emptage
Alfred was born into a long line of mariners but, perhaps realising not only that it was a difficult life but also a dangerous one, he and his four brothers turned their back on the sea and sought other means of making a living.
An assurance agent in Margate, Thanet, Alfred rose to the position of a Vice President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (pictured) in New York.
A Boatman’s Life
Born into a family of generations of mariners, Albert John Emptage earnt his living by the sea, having begun to work with boats at the age of eight. Whilst he had a turbulent domestic life, his skill at sea was undisputed. Albert was a member of the Margate lifeboat service for 40 years, many of them as coxswain. It was not just his height which made him a ‘giant of a man’.