PIONEERS

William Booth

William Booth began The Salvation Army in July 1865. Preaching to a small congregation in the slums of London. Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards were among Booth’s first converts to Christianity. His congregation were desperately poor. He preached hope and salvation. His aim was to lead them to Christ and link them to a church for continued spiritual guidance.

Even though Booth’s followers were converted, churches did not accept them because of what they had been. However, Booth gave their lives direction in both a spiritual and practical manner and put them to work to help others who were like themselves. They, too preached and sang in the streets as a living testimony to the power of God.

In 1867, Booth had only 10 full-time workers. By 1874, the numbers had grown to 1,000 volunteers and 42 evangelists. They served under the name The Christian Mission and Booth assumed the title of General Superintendent, although his followers called him ‘General’. Known as the ‘Hallelujah Army’, the converts spread out to the east end of London into neighbouring areas and then to other cities.

In 1878, Booth was reading a printer’s proof of the organization’s annual report when he noticed the statement, ‘the Christian Mission under the Superintendent’s of the Rev. William Booth is a volunteer army.’ He crossed out the words ‘volunteer army’ and penned in ‘Salvation Army.’ From those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army which was adopted in August of that same year.

Booth agreed to send Frederick Tucker to India in 1882.

Booth visited India in 1891 and again in 1895. His first visit was just nine years after the Army started work in India. By this time opposition had diminished. He was welcomed by government officials and there were large crowds to greet him at Egmore in Madras. After his second visit to India he issued a memorandum in which he expressed his hopes for the future of the Army:

But, what of the future? That is my anxiety. The opportunities are so vast and responsibilities connected with them so serious, that I am staggered by looking them in the face. Some of the things I want to be emphasized are:

1. Maintain every advantage already gained, secure and train the converts already made
2. Improve the training of officers
3. Pay a thousand, nay ten thousand times more attention to the children
4. Keep on supplying barracks in those villages where we have a reasonable number of soldiers
5. Establishment of corps in all large cities
6. Working out a new social scheme, which is destined to become a very great boon to the poor of this land.

General Booth’s death in 1912 was a great loss to The Salvation Army. However, he had laid a firm foundation for the organization.

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Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth, wife of Salvation Army founder William Booth, was known as the “Army Mother”. In her world, women had few rights, no place in the professions and a minimal presence in church leadership. Nonetheless, in her marriage to William Booth, she became an evangelist, preacher and theologian, and co-founder of The Salvation Army.

As a child, Catherine Booth was bright and tenacious despite long illnesses. By age 12, she had thoroughly studied the Bible from cover to cover—eight times. During her life, she became one of the most popular preachers of her era.

A prolific writer, Catherine Booth explored universal questions and provided forthright answers. She believed Christians must be passionate about their faith, that if we are indifferent we can lose the capacity for love and service. She wrote: ‘He doesn’t ask you to go to chapel or join the church and pray...but to get down and give up your heart to Him, to choose whom you will serve, and do it at once, and everything else will follow.

In 1860 Catherine and William Booth attended Chapel in Gateshead. William was preaching in the pulpit and Catherine was sitting in the congregation. As he finished speaking William saw Catherine leave her seat and make her way to the front. He leaned over the pulpit and asked: “What is the matter?” “I want to say a word,” Catherine replied.

William then addressed the congregation and said, “My dear wife wants to say a word”. He then sat down and Catherine mounted the pulpit. She told the congregation of her disobedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her to be courageous and speak in public about Jesus. As she confessed her own weaknesses in public, members of the congregation were in tears as they listened to this godly woman. News quickly spread through the town that a woman had preached, and from then onwards she was in great demand as a preacher.

All this would never have happened had not William Booth allowed Catherine to speak. He recognised her abilities, her spirituality and her love for souls and he gave her the opportunity to join him in a shared ministry.

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Frederick Booth-Tucker

Frederick St George de Lautour (Booth)Tucker

Son of William Thornhill Tucker, a deputy commissioner in the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and in 1875 was converted during the Moody and Sankey campaigns in London.

He served in the Indian Civil Service, but while on leave in England in 1881 he joined The Salvation Army and came to work in the legal department at International Headquarters. In 1882, he led a group of pioneer officers to India, where he became known as ‘Fakir Singh’.* His first wife, Louisa Mary, died in Bombay in February 1887. He married Emma Booth in 1888 and adopted the name Booth-Tucker. They served in India until 1891 when they were appointed to London as Commissioners for Foreign Affairs.

Subsequently he was Territorial Commander in the United States, 1896-1904, where Emma died in 1903; Foreign Secretary, in London, 1904-7; Special Commissioner for India and Ceylon, 1907-19; and travelling Commissioner until his retirement in 1924.

In 1906 he married Colonel Minnie Reid, daughter of a one-time Acting Governor of Bombay, and they served together in India.

The Viceroy and Governor General awarded him the Kaiser-I-Hind medal (first class) ‘For Public Service in India

He wrote a number of poems and songs, and compiled a collection of One Hundred Favourite Songs of The Salvation Army, 1899, in the United States. He was the first editor of ‘The Officer’ magazine in 1893, and was the author of several books, including a Life of Catherine Booth, 1892; The Consul, 1903; and Muktifauj 1923 – the story of the first 40 years of the Army in India and Ceylon. Booth-Tucker is best known for his work in rehabilitation of the criminal tribes of India.

He was admitted to the Order of the Founder in 1920, promoted to Glory 17 July 1929 from Stoke Newington, London and buried at Abney Park Cemetery.

’Look Eastward for his Monument’ was the tribute to Commissioner Booth-Tucker
published in The War Cry 27 July 1929


* He is remembered as one who identified himself with the Indian way of life and of dress. There are several hand-drawn pictures of him, one of which is reproduced here, "The sleeping Fakir"