Tabitha/Dorcas (1908)
Like his predecessor, Charles Stirling, the Reverend William Allen Challacombe was Vicar of Christ Church for 27 years (1893-1920). The letters with which he began each Parish Magazine published during this time are a rich source of information about life at Christ Church. A particular feature of these letters is the gratitude that Mr Challacombe expresses for member of the congregation and their contributions to the church life.
One of those mentioned on numerous occasions in these letters is Miss Emily Larkin. Emily was born in December 1831 in Egham in Surrey. She was baptised on 22nd January 1832. Emily’s father William was a bricklayer and she was the second of eight children born to him and his wife Ann. The other children were Richard (1829), Caroline (1834), William (1837), Louisa (1838), Sophia (1841), Annie (1843) and Charles (1846). In the 1851 census, the 19 year old Emily is listed as ‘at home’, presumably looking after the household duties with her mother. A sad blow was the death at 25 of her younger sister Caroline after just four years of marriage. Over the next few years, her other brothers and sisters got married but, by the age of 29 and the 1861 census, Emily was unmarried and living with her brother Richard who was a bookseller.
However after her mother Ann died in 1870, Emily, as the only unmarried daughter, moved back home to look after her elderly father. After William’s death in 1880, Emily moved in with her younger sister Annie Bourne, who had been widowed only a few years into her marriage.
With their parents gone and nothing left to tie them to Egham, Emily and Annie decided at some point in the 1880’s to leave for a fresh start in New Malden. By the 1891 census, when Emily was 59 and Annie 48, they were living in a house called Linden on the Kingston Road with a 17 year old servant called Elizabeth Willis.
Both sisters had become regular and committed members of Christ Church. Amongst the references by Mr Challacombe to the service of Miss Larkin and Mrs Bourne are his praise of them for cleaning and beautifying the sanctuary week by week. The sisters’ responsibilities included tending the delicate linens used for Communion Table and also providing seasonal furnishings for the chancel. Mr Challacombe was known for his concern regarding the appropriateness of everything within the sanctuary and it was during this period that ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’ was written in large lettering above the chancel arch.
Another aspect of Emily and Annie’s service at Christ Church was their love and care for its people. Despite being childless herself, Emily was a key leader of a group for mothers. Mr Challacombe also singled out his gratitude to the sisters for their support of his wife Jesse Challacombe when she was ill. When the Vicar and his wife took a holiday in Berkshire to aid Mrs Challacombe’s recovery, Emily and Annie evidently went with them. Mr Challacombe describing them as ‘heartily welcomed companions’, ‘kind beyond the telling' and whose ‘help is doing much to quicken the convalescence of Mrs Challacombe’.
In the autumn of 1902, as she was approaching 71, Emily Larkin herself became seriously unwell. Mr Challacombe helped her to travel down to Tunbridge Wells so that she could convalesce there. Upon her recovery, Emily wrote the following letter to the congregation which Mr Challacombe inserted into the Parish Magazine of November 1902:
‘My dear friends. As I find it impossible to reach personally all my dear friends in New Malden and elsewhere, the Vicar is kindly allowing me to address you in this Magazine. I am anxious you should know how grateful I am for all you did for me and were to me in my illness. The numerous tokens of love and sympathy which reached me almost daily, and were continued even during our stay in Tunbridge Wells, have been a source of the greatest comfort and consolation to me, and have been in a measure the means of restoring me to health and strength again. The knowledge that so many prayers were being offered on my behalf helped to strengthen my faith in my Heavenly Father’s promise, ‘As they day, so shall they strength be’. And I hope with His blessing and in His own good time to be able to resume my little part in the work of my Master’s vineyard. Especially I would like to thank my dear, kind friends, the members of my Mother’s Meeting, for the lovely tribute of flowers sent quite early in my illness, and which touched me deeply. For this, and for everything, both in word and deed, I thank you all most gratefully, and shall ever remain: Your faithful and loving friend, Emily Larkin.' Mr Challacombe then added some words expressing his great joy that Miss Larkin had now rapidly improved in health.
Emily Larkin eventually died at the age of 75 on 22nd November 1906. She was buried at Kingston Cemetery two days later on 24th November. Her funeral was conducted by Mr Challacombe.
Following Emily’s death, her friends in the parish decided that her memory should be preserved through the establishment of a new stained glass window at Christ Church. This was agreed in at the same Vestry Meeting on October 1907 that it was decided that there should be a window in memory of Alfred Streeter.
Subscriptions were raised and the eventual result in July 1908 was the production of a window depicting the biblical character Tabitha/Dorcas from Acts 9.36-43. Dorcas was chosen because her acts of love were seen as similar to those of Miss Larkin. The window was placed in the south wall of the chancel at Christ Church because of the particular role that Emily, together with her sister Annie, had had in looking after that part of the church. Below the pictures it said: ‘This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds in all she did’ followed by ‘To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Emily Larkin who fell asleep November 22nd 1906 aged 75 years.
The Surrey Comet reported its dedication as follows: ‘…the new window was dedicated on Sunday morning by the Vicar, the Reverend William Allen Challacombe, in the presence of a large congregation. The ceremony was of a simple character, in keeping with what would have been the wishes of the deceased lady, and the Vicar afterwards preached an appropriate sermon on the life of Dorcas making fitting allusions to the labours of Miss Larkin’. Emily’s sister Annie Bourne lived until 1922 when she died at the age of 84. Fittingly she was buried at Kingston Cemetery next to Emily and they share the same headstone.
You can listen to the sermon from the Windows on the Gospel sermon series below.
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Faith, Hope and Love (1908) | Simeon and Anna (1912) |  |