Booth, Catherine
Catherine Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army.
Birth and parentage
On the 17.1.1829, Catherine Booth was born at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, England. Her mother, Sarah (nee Milward), was married to John Mumford, a former Methodist lay preacher who for a time lost his faith and turned to drink, before returning to the fold.
Apart from the period 1841-43 she was educated at home by her mother, Sarah. The journalist W.T. Stead, who later became a friend of Catherine's, noted that: "The austere but tender mother was all the world to her daughter: her companion, her confidante, her spiritual directress, her teacher."
Sarah did not let her children study fiction or French, the latter on the grounds it was "the language of infidels", something Catherine later disagreed with. Before the age of 12 she had read the Bible through eight times.
Lincolnshire and the Temperance movement
The Mumford family later moved from Ashbourne to Boston in Lincolnshire. Temperance meetings were conducted in the Mumford household which made impression on her. In later years she was also a strict vegetarian.
Move to London and Wesleyanism
When she was 15 the family moved to Brixton, London. Her mother joined the Wesleyan church there and Catherine regularly accompanied her to Sunday services and weekly Methodist class meetings.
A black and white photographic postcard showing the Oldham 1, St. Alban's and Dartford bands making up part of the funeral procession of William Booth passing through the city of London, UK, 29.8.1912
Conversion and illness
Then, in 1845, Catherine was "truly and savingly converted" and joined the Wesleyan Church. But in the autumn of that year she contracted Tuberculosis and ill-health would dog her for the rest of her life, despite seeking cures in therapies such as homeopathy and hydrotherapy.
Wesleyan Reform Movement
It was at this time that Catherine started to side with the Wesleyan Reform Movement. This was for two main reasons: one, she supported a more democratic approach to church government. And two, she longed for revivalism to sweep through Methodism. For holding these views she was dismissed from the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Brixton and so Catherine and her mother joined the Reformers and began to teach Sunday school classes.
Meeting William Booth
1852 was a significant year: Catherine and her mother heard William Booth preach at Binfield House, Clapham. Impressed with the sermon she told her friend Edward Rabbits, Williams sponsor. As a result, two weeks later he arranged for Catherine and her mother to meet Booth for afternoon tea at his house. They fell in love and began to correspond with one another. She convinced him of the virtues of study, warned him of the dangers of ambition and encouraged him to write to her on a more regular basis.
Methodist New Connexion
On the 15.5.1852, Catherine became engaged to William. She favoured a move to the Methodist New Connexion. William, finally convinced, agreed and they both joined.
In 1854 Catherine wrote an article in the New Connexion Magazine "on the best means for retaining new converts", her earliest publication. Hundreds of articles in the War Cry and many books followed.
Marriage
On the 16.6.1855, William and Catherine married at Stockwell Congregational Chapel. After just a weeks' honeymoon on the Isle of Wight they made trips to Guernsey and Jersey where William led revival services. They then returned to London. Catherine accompanied William on his travels, except when she was unwell.
Children
On the 8.3.1856 the first of her eight children, Bramwell, was born. Regarding the rearing of children, Catherine wrote many years later that:
"The first and most important point is to secure OBEDIENCE. Obedience to properly constituted authority is the foundation of all moral excellence, not only in childhood, but all the way through life... In order to do this, you must begin EARLY ENOUGH."
Teaching, ministry and James Caughey
Catherine taught female members of the chapel and a Sunday school class at Brighouse, Yorkshire.
Then, in 1858, Catherine and William made contact with the Irish-American evangelist Rev James Caughey. His preaching and evangelistic emphasis influenced them greatly.
She ministered to the poor, including alcoholics, at Gateshead: "The Lord so blessed my efforts that in a few weeks I succeeded in getting ten drunkards to abandon their soul-destroying habits, and to meet once a week for reading the Scriptures and for prayer."
"I want to say a word"
That year, after the conclusion of one of her husband's sermons, she got up from the pew and said to William: "I want to say a word", going on to speak to a congregation of 1000. Thus began her public ministry of preaching and teaching. Her sermons lasted an hour and sometimes as long as an hour and a half and she deputised for William when he was away from Gateshead or ill.
Resignation and move to London
In 1862, William and Catherine formally left the Methodist New Connexion. Catherine called it "our resignation". They moved to the Mumford home in London. Catherine began conducting revival meetings on her own.
The Christian Mission
In 1865, William and Catherine moved to London. Catherine continued to preach. The East London Christian Revival Union, later The East London Christian Mission, was founded. Converts either chose not to go to existing churches or were shunned by them because of their class and background.
1868 saw The East London Christian Mission begin to print its own magazine, The East London Evangelist (renamed in 1870 'The Christian Mission Magazine'), and Catherine went on to write many of its articles.
First Conference
The first conference of The Christian Mission was held in 1870. Catherine's influence was evident in the part of the consitution relating to 'Female Preachers':
"godly women possessing the necessary gifts and qualifications, shall be employed as preachers itinerant or otherwise and class leaders and as such shall have appointments given to them on the preacher's plan; they shall be eligible for any office, and to speak and vote at all official meetings."
The Salvation Army is born
In 1878, The Christian Mission changed its name to The Salvation Army with William as General. Catherine continued to shape the theology of the Army, as well as its uniform and structure, from the flag and uniforms to ranks and corps. She placed great emphasis on sacramental living, abandoning the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper which had previously been practised in The Christian Mission.
Purity Crusade
In 1885, during the so-called 'Purity Crusade', Catherine campaigned against child and enforced prostitution, arguing that the age of consent should be raised from 13 to 18. In her speeches she made this an issue of human rights for the poor. The Booths sent a petition, in the form of a giant roll, to the House of Commons with 393,000 signatures on it.
Popular Christianity
1887 saw publication of Catherine's book 'Popular Christianity', a collection of addresses delivered in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, London, three years previously.
Terminal illness
February 1888 brought grim news: Catherine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She confided to William that her first thought on hearing this was that she would "not be there to nurse William at his last hour." William was "stunned" by this news, adding that "to go home was anguish. To be away was worse. Life became a burden, almost too heavy to be borne, until God in a very definite manner visited me in a measure, and comforted my heart." Catherine refused any medical treatment.
Last public address
On the 21.6.1888, Catherine delivered her last address at the City Temple, London. Her remark about the gospel demonstrated her typically direct and challenging style of preaching:
"If it is not true, be done with it; if it is true, act upon it!"
It was a measure of how much energy she had expended giving this talk and how weakened she was by her illness that she needed an hour to recuperate before returning home. Nevertheless, she continued her ministry, dictating letters and offering advice, both to William and to officers worldwide.
'Promoted to Glory'
Just over two years later, on the 4.10.1890, Catherine was 'promoted to Glory' from Clacton-on-Sea. William wrote in The War Cry that:
"The Army will mourn her loss and has reasons for it; but she will live on, and on, and on in the hearts and lives of thousands and thousands of her daughters. Never before, perhaps, save in the case of one, and that one the most "blessed among women", the mother of our Lord, has there lived a saint who has had her own sex encouraged and emboldened by her example, working out her principles, and walking in her steps."
Ten days later she taken in a hearse from International Headquarters and buried at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London.
Further reading: Roger Green, 'Catherine Booth: A biography of the co-founder of The Salvation Army', Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 1996
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