Christoph Theodosius Walther

Christoph Theodosius Walther (20 December 1699 – 29 April 1741) was a German Lutheran missionary who worked in the Danish Halle Mission in Tranquebar, southern India where he took an interest in the Tamil language and the local plants.

Walther was born in Shildberg near Soldin in West Pomerania in a family of protestant preachers.

He went to Tranquebar as part of the Danish Halle Mission leaving Halle on December 8, 1724 to Rotterdam, and then to London where he met members of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

He married Anna Christina Brochmann, daughter of a Danish administrator on December 21, 1728.

[1][2] While posted in Tranquebar, he undertook a project to document the plants of the region and began the Herbarium Trangambariense (1743) collecting Tamil names and documenting the usage of plants.