Francis Walter was born in St Albans Hertfordshire on 24 April 1884 to parents, William Francis Emptage, a gardener aged 35, and mother, Mary Ann (Pierce) aged 34. William had been born in Broadstairs, Thanet, Kent, on 27 February 1849 and married Mary Ann in 1867.

By 1891 William was a head gardener and the family was living in Horsham, West Sussex.

Francis was only nine years old when his mother died in Horsham, 1894 aged 44. With a ten year old son to look after, within nine months, William married Kate Elizabeth Steer.

Francis took after his father and became a skilled gardener. Aged 20, he emigrated to Canada in 1904 and settled in Meaford Township, Ontario.

On the 12 August 1908, Francis aged 24, married Ella Catherine McCartney, aged 22, in Meaford Township, and within eight months their son, George Wesley Emptage was born, followed by Dorothy Jean in 1911.

Although a gardener by trade, by 1911 Francis had become a grocery wagon driver. When, during World War One, he enlisted into the army in September 1917, aged 33, he gave his occupation as a credit manager. It is unlikely that Francis saw active service.

Their third child Norman Malcolm was born in 1920. Norman died in 1944 in Italy during the Second World War and was buried at Acona Marche, Italy.

Francis was widowed on 11 September 1922 when his wife of 14 years, Ella Catherine sadly died from endocarditis and nephritis, aged 36. Ella was buried at Lakeview Cemetery, St Vincent Township in Meaford.

Fourteen months later, on the 4 December 1923, Francis married Beatrice Bailey, a spinster aged 32, daughter of single mother, Mary Elizabeth Bailey.

On the 14th December 1924, Beatrice gave birth to a son who died after ten hours from a cerebral haemorrhage, without having been named. Beatrice gave birth to another son, William Graham, on 14 August 1926.

Tragedy was to quickly follow when Francis died from pneumonia just eight months later, on 22 April 1927 aged 42. He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Meaford.

Beatrice never remarried and out lived Francis by 59 years and died in 1986 age 97.