General Booth Dead

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 691, 17 June 1929, Page 9

General Booth Dead

DEPOSED SALVATION LEADER Succumbs to Long Illness REST FROM HIS GREAT LABOURS (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 11.5 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. GENERAL BOOTH, formerly leader of the Salvation Army, died today. His age was 73. The High Council deposed him on January 18 on the ground of his ill-health.

William Bramwell Booth was the sou of the founder of the Salvation Army. He was horn in 1856 at Halifax, Yorkshire, which later made him a freeman, and educated at. the City of London School, and became an officer of the Army in 1874, at the age of 18. In 1880 he was appointed chief of staff, that is, second in command, and that position he held till the death of his father in 1912. when he became, by the founder’s own decision, General of the Salvation Army. Before he took over the command the Army had been working in nearly 60 countries. Under his leadership it spread still further, and now its flag is planted In over 80 lands, its message is spoken in well-nigh 60 languages. and its corps and outposts number more than 1,400. EXTENSIVE TRAVEL

In his eaj;ly days he travelled extensively, visiting Europe, the United States, Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand. He took an active part in the agitation over what was known as the “Maiden Tribute” —a movement which influenced legislation for the protection of girls by the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. Bramwell Booth was a brilliant administrator and could have earned a large salary In a business house. It was he who built up the machinery for the “Darkest England” scheme, whose object was to rescue the “submerged tenth.” In 1913 General Booth, after a long estrangement, was reconciled in New York with his brother, Ballington Booth, who had liad a disagreement with his father and had started a rival movement. His activities include the chairmanship of the Salvation Army Life Assurance Society and the Reliance Bank, and he was joint president of the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches. In 1920 he made a tour round the world. 11l

March, 1926, when his 70th birthday was celebrated, officers attended from all over the world, and there was a wonderful pageant of races. The collection for his birthday scheme for the extension of mission work realised £165,282. DEPOSED FROM OFFICE As long ago as November 13. it was reported that • he was very ill, and sinking fast. The High Council of the Salvation Army was summoned, and Commissioner James Hay went to England to represent New Zealand at the momentous sessions at Sunbury-on-Thames. On January 18, by 55 votes to eight, the High Council deposed General Booth, despite moving appeals by him that he be allowed to carry on the work that had been begun by his father, and thousands of messages of protest. General Booth resisted the decision to the length of taking it into the law courts, but the High Council had its way, and chose to succeed him Commissioner E. J. Higgins, Chief of Staff, who took the title of “General,” while the title of “General, Retired,” was given to the deposed leader. Since his deposition General Booth has never rallied, though there were many who held the hope that he would recover, and who were confident that if he could get hack among his followers his eloquent appeals would have effect. “The battle is not yet over,” said his wile recently. But death has intervened, and a brave fighter and great administrator is gone. In 1882 General Booth married Florence Soper, daughter of a Plymouth doctor, who had been engaged in the beginnings of the Army’s work in France. All their seven children became officers. She was appointed a commissioner in ISSS, and was up to 1925 responsible for the evangelical work in the United Kingdom. She has never ceased from strife on her husband’s behalf.