William Booth
Vanity Fair Print
£50.00
William Booth (10 April 1829 – 20 August 1912) was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first General (1878–1912). This Christian movement, founded in 1865, has a quasi-military structure and government and has spread from London to many parts of the world. It is one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid.
Having been founded as the East London Christian Mission in 1865, the name The Salvation Army developed from an incident in May 1878. William Booth was dictating a letter to his secretary George Scott Railton and said, "We are a volunteer army." Bramwell Booth heard his father and said, "Volunteer, I'm no volunteer, I'm a regular!" Railton was instructed to cross out the word "volunteer" and substitute the word "salvation".
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. In a letter to Bramwell Booth, King George V wrote: "The nation has lost a great organizer and the poor a whole-hearted and sincere friend." United States President William Taft wrote "[Booth's] long life and great talents were dedicated to the noble work of helping the poor and weak and giving them another chance to attain success and happiness."
Condition - good
by Sir Leslie Ward
chromolithograph, published in Vanity Fair 25 November 1882
40x26cm