William Booth

@Founder of the Salvation Army, Birthday and Life

William Booth was an English preacher and humanitarian who founded the Salvation Army

Apr 10, 1829

BritishMiscellaneousPreachersAries Celebrities
Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: April 10, 1829
  • Died on: August 20, 1912
  • Nationality: British
  • Famous: Founder of the Salvation Army, Miscellaneous, Preachers
  • Spouses: Catherine Booth
  • Childrens: Evangeline Booth - Bramwell Booth - Kate Booth - Ballington Booth - Herbert Booth - Emma Booth - Lucy Booth - Marie Booth
  • Founder / Co-Founder:
    • Salvation Army

William Booth born at

Sneinton, Nottingham, England

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Birth Place

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.

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Childhood & Early Life

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.

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Childhood & Early Life

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)

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Childhood & Early Life

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

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Childhood & Early Life

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

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Childhood & Early Life

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.

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Career

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.

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Career

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.

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Career

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.

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Career

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.

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Career

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.

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Awards & Achievements

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

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Awards & Achievements

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

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Awards & Achievements

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

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Awards & Achievements

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.

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Awards & Achievements