Emma (Hunter) Rohu 1881-1933
Cork, 1900
Emma Rohu was the first wife of Henry Vincent Rohu (1882-1938) who was one of three sons of Fredrick Raynor Rohu. Emma was born on 30th January 1881 in Warrington, England. Her father, William Hunter, was a master painter and decorator. When she was five years old, her father brought her to a Salvation Army meeting, which was the start of her life-long association with the movement.
Emma's mother died when she was 13, and the responsibility fell on her to look after her three siblings - Tom, the eldest in the family, Elizabeth, and the youngest, a two year old boy named Charles. William Hunter's second marriage was not a happy one and, still in her teens, Emma left home to work as a mother's help for a well-to-do family.
On 11 November 1900, at the age of 18, Emma was commissioned as a cadet sergeant in the Salvation Army. On the same evening she was promoted to captain and posted, with a colleague, to the town of Clay Cross in Derbyshire. She was then sent to Ireland as part of a team charged with establishing the organisation in the south of the country.
Emma's mother died when she was 13, and the responsibility fell on her to look after her three siblings - Tom, the eldest in the family, Elizabeth, and the youngest, a two year old boy named Charles. William Hunter's second marriage was not a happy one and, still in her teens, Emma left home to work as a mother's help for a well-to-do family.
On 11 November 1900, at the age of 18, Emma was commissioned as a cadet sergeant in the Salvation Army. On the same evening she was promoted to captain and posted, with a colleague, to the town of Clay Cross in Derbyshire. She was then sent to Ireland as part of a team charged with establishing the organisation in the south of the country.
Cork
Confrontation in Cork
Between 1900 and 1904 Emma worked in very difficult circumstances in both Cork and Waterford as there was strong, often violent opposition to the Salvation Army at that time. This was partly due to the fact that the local population considered them British soldiers. On one occasion, in Cork, Emma and a colleague were chased into a hardware shop, had their uniforms torn, their buttons removed and were beaten. They were only saved by a local lady who grabbed some school canes and, waving them at the crowd, shouted, 'I don't know anything about their religion but, bedad, I won't let them be hurt'!
Waterford
The persecution was worse in Waterford, where their meeting hall was picketed and they were refused food, which had to be brought from Dublin, and fuel. Emma and her lieutenant had to boil kettles using copies of their tracts, and would run around a table at night to warm themselves up. It was during this time that Emma received a kick on the head which caused her hair to go prematurely white. One of the team was set upon in John's Street, had several bones broken and had his teeth knocked out. They were opposed by both Catholics and Protestants in the city to the point that Emma appealed to the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese to instruct his priests from stirring up opposition to them as it was leading to violence. This article from the Waterford Star, Saturday, 12 April 1902, is the first press report of the arrival of the 'Salvationists' in the city. Emma was next posted to Londonderry in Northern Ireland and then to Ipswich, England.
Married Life
Duet on Margate Sands, 1925
On 22 October 1907, Emma married Henry (Harry) Vincent Rohu, who was also a Captain in the Salvation Army. The wedding took place at the Army Citadel in Harrogate, London, which was where Henry was stationed. They had two children, Winifred (1908) and Evangeline (1912). Emma followed Harry in his postings to the Army Training College (1911), Newport in Wales (1918) and Edinburgh, Scotland (1919). They were deeply involved in a great revival of Christian devotion in Scotland in 1922. It was while they were in Scotland that their eldest daughter, Winny died suddenly at the age of 14, a shock that Emma never really got over.
Their next posting was Canterbury, England, where they regularly held meetings at the nearby resort of Margate Sands. Emma and Harry were very happy here as they liked nothing better than to be on 'active service'. To their disappointment, however, Harry was next asked to take over the education department at the National Headquarters. This was to be Emma's last posting as on 29 September 1929 she was taken ill at a meeting and had to be rushed by ambulance to hospital.
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There followed a protracted illness until Emma passed away after a stroke on 20 January 1933. Emma is buried in the Salvation Army plot in Abney Park Cemetry, Stoke Newington, London. Shortly after her death, Harry wrote a biography of Emma. The typewritten manuscript of this now resides in the Duke University Library. An online version of the manuscript can be viewed here. Harry Rohu later married Ethel Roberts, daughter of John Roberts, a founder member of the Salvation Army.