Story: Emma Isabella Stroud (1843 - 1928)

From Arthur Lipscombe, added to this site 7 Dec 2000

Emma Stroud was born in 1843 in Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. Her parents were English, and family tradition has it that her father was a member of the Mauritius police force. Mauritius, originally a French possession, had been taken over by England at the time of the Napoleonic wars, and is a French-speaking country.

Emma grew up speaking French and in her teens was sent to England for her education. She retained a French accent all her life. Her grandson remembered that when she was excited, her English pronunciation often became less clear, and when was angry with you, she would tell you off in French.

In 1860, in Kensington, London, she married John Lipscombe, a Scots Guard who was stationed at Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace. Emma had 10 children, two of whom died in infancy. The details of the birth of her children were writen into the front of the family Bible, the pages from which still exist. Frances died aged 3 in 1872, and the birth place and death place (unlike for her other children) are not recorded. It is possible that Frances died en route to New Zealand.

Her first 5 children were born around Portsmouth on the south coast of England. Some time between 1871 and 1877, possibly around 1872, she and her family migrated to New Zealand, where her last 5 children were born.

In the late 1880s or early 1890s the family moved to Australia, some of her elder children remaining in New Zealand where they had settled. Agnes, George, Walter, Arch and Frank accompanied her and her husband to Australia. They arrived in Australia in Adelaide, it is thought, but moved soon to Melbourne.

John, her husband, got a job driving cable trams. Emma and John lived in Canning St, Carlton with their daughter Agnes. Their house was close to the Tramways depot in Nicholson St, so it only took John a few minutes to get to work. John retired and died in their home in 1911. Emma continued living in Canning St with her daughter Agnes until her death.

Agnes had contracted polio as a child and never married, dying in Australia after her parents. Arch married in Australia and his first 3 children were born in Middle Park. He enlisted in the AIF in February 1915 and served overseas. He returned from the war in May 1919 and his family went to the docks at Port Melbourne to meet him on his return. He later moved with his family to New Zealand where he had been born. Walter was a sailor, working in Australian maritime shipping. He never married and when he could he dropped in on his relatives in Melbourne. He was last heard of by the family in Newcastle, NSW, c.1950.