How well do you know your Salvation Army history?

Today is Founders’ Day, a time to celebrate the lives of Catherine and William Booth, who founded the evangelical movement known today as The Salvation Army.

On 2 July 1865, the Rev. William Booth and his wife Catherine began a ministry in poverty-stricken East London that would become today’s Salvation Army.

Salvos Online, with some help from The United Kingdom and Ireland Territory website, has come up with a 10-question quiz to test your Salvation Army knowledge. See if you can get 10 out of 10:

Questions (answers are at the end): 

1. In what year did William and Catherine Booth found The Salvation Army?

2. What was William Booth’s first job?

3. Find the missing word from this Catherine Booth quote: “If we are to better the future, we must disturb the ......’

4. Which two of William and Catherine’s eight children became Generals of The Salvation Army?

5. In what year was William Booth promoted to glory?

6. Before it was changed to The Salvation Army in 1878, what was the movement originally called?

7. In 1891, William Booth opened a Salvation Army-run matchbox factory, which paid higher wages and allowed employees to work in much better conditions than other factories. What was the slogan printed on the matchbox lid?

8. What was the name of the book that William Booth published in 1890?

9. To this date, how many Generals have there been?

10. When the name was changed in 1878 to The Salvation Army, William became known as General. What title was given to Catherine?

Answers:

1.     1865

After his marriage to Catherine Mumford in 1855, William Booth spent several years as a Methodist minister, travelling all around the country, preaching and sharing God’s word to all who would listen. Yet he felt that God wanted more from him, that he should be doing more to reach ordinary people. He moved to London with his family, having resigned his position as a Methodist minister.

On 2 July 1865, William commenced his first open-air evangelistic campaign at the old Quaker burial ground on Mile End waste in Whitechapel, preaching in a tent. It was noted that “the breath of any reeked with the fumes of gin or beer which drove from the already heavy air within those canvas walls the last vestige of wholesomeness”.

2.     Pawnbroker’s apprentice

In 1842, aged 13, his father sent him to work as an apprentice to Francis Eames in a pawnbroker’s shop situated in the poorest part of Nottingham. This stirred his social conscience as, through it, he became aware of the plight of the poor.

It was at this time that William started attending Broad Street Wesley Chapel (Methodist), and in 1844, he had a conversion experience, noting that: “It was in the open street [of Nottingham] that this great change passed over me.”

3.     Present

For more on the life of Catherine Booth, click here.

4.      Bramwell and Evangeline

William and Catherine Booth had eight children: Bramwell, Ballington, Catherine, Emma, Herbert, Marian, Evangeline and Lucy. Each became involved in Army work. Like all families, there was conflict as well as harmony. Two of the children were to become General, yet three were to leave the movement.

Bramwell Booth was born in 1856. By his teens, he was his father’s right-hand man, a loyal adviser and administrator, and was to become the Army’s Chief of the Staff. In 1912, he was appointed General. His autocratic leadership style, based on his father’s, was not always popular. In later years and declining health, his leadership was questioned, resulting in a bitter struggle for power. He died in 1929.

Evangeline Booth was born in 1865. At age 20, she became an officer in charge of Marylebone Corps. She went on to lead the Army in Canada before becoming US Commander in 1904. Evangeline spent 30 years in America before serving as General from 1934-1939. The Army prospered under her leadership, and Evangeline travelled extensively around the world. She died in 1950.

5.     1912

William Booth died at age 83 on 20 August 1912 at his home in Hadley Wood, London. His body lay in state for three days at Clapton Congress Hall, where 150,000 people filed past his casket. On 27 August 1912, Booth’s funeral service was held at Olympia London, where 40,000 people attended, including Queen Mary, who sat almost unrecognised far to the rear of the great hall. Booth’s funeral procession began at The Salvation Army International Headquarters as 10,000 uniformed Salvationists fell in behind. Forty Salvation Army brass bands played the ‘Dead March’ from Handel’s Saul as the vast procession set off. He was buried with his wife Catherine (died 1890) in Abney Park Cemetery. Upon Booth's death, his son, Bramwell Booth, became the second General of The Salvation Army.

6.     The Christian Mission

In 1865, the Booths named their campaign The Christian Mission; however, by 1878, it was renamed The Salvation Army. As military terminology became more commonplace, Booth became known as the ‘General’, a suitable shortening of the title of ‘General Superintendent’ that he held as the head of The Christian Mission.A ‘Deed of Constitution’ outlining his duties and responsibilities, which included the power to appoint a successor, was drawn up. Mission station preachers were given the rank of captain, and uniforms suitable to the ranks followed. A military discipline governed the lives of the officers.

Writing in The Salvationist in 1879, Booth summed up the purpose of the Army in the following simple but striking way: “We are a salvation people – this is our speciality – getting saved and keeping saved, and then getting somebody else saved and then getting saved ourselves more and more until full salvation on earth makes the heaven within, which is finally perfected by the full salvation without, on the other side of the river.”

However, getting people saved was not always an easy task, as Booth found out. There was opposition from organised groups such as the so-called Skeleton Army. And early Salvationists were often pelted with stones or even imprisoned for marching down the street.

7.     Lights in Darkest England

This initiative led to the raising of standards in all British match factories.

8.     In Darkest England and the Way Out

William Booth’s social manifesto, In Darkest England and the Way Out, explored various ideas such as providing food and shelter for the poor, helping the disadvantaged learn agricultural trades, and assisting people in search of a better life to emigrate. From this point on, the Army’s mission became two-pronged: to provide social salvation as well as proclaiming personal salvation.

9.     22

The first being William Booth 1865-1912 and the current, Lyndon Buckingham, who was elected in 2023.

10.  ‘Mother of The Salvation Army’.

Catherine was behind many of the changes in the new organisation, designing the flag and bonnets for the ladies, and contributed to the Army’s ideas on many important issues and matters of belief.

At that time, it was unheard of for women to speak in adult meetings. She was convinced that women had an equal right to speak. At first, Catherine and William had shared a ministry as travelling evangelists, but then she came into great demand as a preacher in her own right, especially among the well-to-do. A woman preacher was a rare phenomenon in a world where women had few civil rights and no place in the professions. Catherine Booth was both a woman and a fine preacher, a magnetic combination that attracted large numbers to hear her and made its own statement about the validity of women’s ministry.

Among her other notable accomplishments, Catherine founded ‘Food for the Million’ shops where the poor could buy a cheap meal and, at Christmas, hundreds of meals were distributed to the needy. She also lobbied Queen Victoria to seek legislation for safeguarding females in the form of the ‘Parliamentary Bill for the Protection of Girls’.