PEN PICTURE OF BRAMWELL BOOTH

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11026, 24 December 1928, Page 2

PEN PICTURE OF BRAMWELL BOOTH

FAMOUS SON OF FAMOUS FATHER. Another great churchman, though not in the same sense as the Archbishop of Canterbury, has found it necessary to retire from activities owing to ill-health. General Brainwell Booth, at the head of the church militant, is almost as well known as the Archbishop, and, one might almost say, as popular, though both are in different directions.

One nnfn has been at the head of the State church, with all its ritual and service ordered by generations of custom, while the other has successfully led a. religious organisation whose methods are frequently bizarre, and always strident. Born in the very centre of Salvation Army activities, General Booth has always been closely associated with social work in the world’s largest cities. His father, the late General William Booth, was founder of the “Army,” which he first started in 1878 in the East End of London, with the idea of helping to alleviate some of the suffering so common in the slum areas of London. His son succeeded to the leadership in 1912, and, with his wife, has visited many parts of the world inspecting the many branches of the organisation which he has s 0 carefully and faithfully controlled. He is by no means unknown in New Zealand, having visited the Dominion during the course of one such inspectoral tour. General Bramwell Booth is now '/2 years old, and his life generally has been a strenuous one. To him must be laid a great deal of credit for the progress which has been made by the Salvation Army, as he ha-s brought modern methods to bear on the business side of the undertaking where his father was more prone to trust to Providence for the assistance he needed. Great organiser as theg original General Booth proved himself to be, lii.s son has shown himself to be even greater, coupled with a natural intuition capable of grasping a situation at a glance. General Booth wCjS accorded an audience with the King in June, 1914, just prior to the outbreak of the Great War, and when the disaster did actually occur the organisation took a very prominent part 111 relief works of various kinds, which included valuable assistance to the men actually in the front, line trenches. In 1882 he was married to Miss Florence Soper, a daughter of the late Dr Soper, and there are two sons of the union. Mrs Bramwell Booth has done much to help her husband, especially on the evangelistic side ol Army endeavour. She was a member of the British Birthrate Commission which sat from 1915 to 1918, and is a Justice of the Peace for the City of London.