SALVATION ARMY

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1929, Page 13

SALVATION ARMY

PROMINENT MEMBER DEAD. ■ COMMISSIONER BOOTH-TUCKER. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. United Service. London, July 17. Tho .death has occurred of Commissioner F. do L, Booth-Tucker, of the Salvation Army, aged 70.

Frederick St. George do Lautour Tucker (later Booth-Tucker) was perhaps the most notable. recruit to the Salvation Army. The son of an Indian Judge and grandson of a former chairman of tho East India Company, he was born at Monghyr, Bengal, in May, 1853. Educated at Cheltenham, ho joined the Indian Civil Service in 1876, but in 1881, as a sequel to reading the War Cry, ho resigned a good appointment in the Punjab to join General Booth’s army. Next year he returned to India, where he inaugurated the work of tho army on novel lines. He wore tho costume of the native beggars and began, with other- converts, to hold open-air meetings. These were objected to by the who imprisoned him and hig companions for a month because he insisted on continuing his meetings in spite of their prohibition. After his release ho wandered through India preaching and maintained himself by begging. In 1888 ho married Emma, General Booth’s second daughter and took the name of Booth-Tucker. Tho wedding caused a sensation, for ho appeared in his Indian beggar’s robe and turban and his feet were bare. His begging bowl was prominently displayed. His wife afterwards adopted a similar costume, for they remained in India till 1891, when ho became foreign secretary at the array headquarters in London. In 1896 he was sent to command tho forces in the United States, but resumed his work in London in 1904. After three years he returned to the East as special commissioner for India and Ceylon, Tho valuable social work he did tl;\re gradually converted the hostility ol tho authorities into admiration, so that he received the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal and other honours.

Ho inaugurated silk and weaving schools to assist the village textile, industries, and did mucH to help the email agriculturists, notably by setting up banks, from which they could get loans without resorting to the extortionate usurers, who ruined them. In addition, ho carried out reformatory work among Indian criminal tribes 'and released prisoners. Leaving India in 1919, ho became travelling commissioner, but retired in September, 1927. Among his books are: “Afuktifary, or Forty Years With the Salvation Array in India” and “Lives of Catherine and Emma Booth,”