William Booth

William Booth was born on April 10, 1829 in Sneinton, Nottingham, England to Samuel and Mary Moss Booth. His parents had five children, William being their only son.

His father was a successful building contractor but faced a slowdown in 1842 and the atrocities of poverty affected the family intensely. The booth family had to give up on their expenses and William’s education was one of it.

Being out of school, William was made to work with a pawnbroker at the age of thirteen only during which he converted to Methodism (which lays more emphasis on preaching to foster devotion as against ceremonial devotion)

Intensive reading and training from other preachers further polished his oratorical and writing skills thereby helping him become a Methodist lay preacher.

At an early age of fifteen Booth started off with preaching on streets on behalf of a Methodist chapel.

His close friend Will Sansom influenced him to become an evangelist. The duo started the Mission Ministry through which they preached in Nottingham especially to the downtrodden and sinners in the 1840s.

Under the Mission Ministry, he along with his companions met in cottages in night, sang songs and visited the sick and suffering. Unfortunately, they could not continue longer due to the demise of Sansom in 1849.

Lack of work took him to London where he started to work with a pawnbroker and tried establishing preaching there. The paucity of work bothered him and he eventually resigned.

William Booth got associated with the Reformers through the Methodist Reform Church in 1851. The following year, he quit pawn-broking and took to preaching round the clock at Binfield Chapel in Clapham.

His preaching was said to be highly influenced by James Caughey, who paid preaching visits to the church in Nottingham while William was stationed in England.

A poem,"General William Booth Enters Into Heaven", was written by Vachel Lindsay in William Booth’s honor which was later tuned into music by Charles Ives.

A diesel locomotive, ‘the William Booth’ in British Rail fleet was named after William Booth in 1990.

Booth became the Freeman of the City of London in 1906 and was honored with an honorary degree from the University of Oxford.

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada developed the William Booth Rose in his honor.

The college for Officer training of the Salvation Army in UK, the William Booth Memorial Training College in Denmark, a primary school, William Booth Primary School in Nottingham, and even a lane in central Birmingham all take his name as an honor.