Scandal, Salvation and Suffrage by Ros Black

Author:Ros Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784628239
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd

CHAPTER 8 – Catherine Booth (1829 – 1890) ‘Mother of The Salvation Army’

It would be impossible to write about Catherine Booth without reference to her husband, William. Yet, amazingly, some historians have tried to write about William and the Salvation Army without any real consideration of Catherine – or her views on drink, duty and women in the church. This chapter aims to redress that balance, without purporting in any way to be a detailed history of the couple’s great creation, the Salvation Army.

To Salvationists, Catherine is endearingly known as the ‘mother’ of the Salvation Army. She had very strong views on the perils of drink. She didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘moderation’. For her, only total abstinence would do. By the age of 16, Catherine had already decided she would only marry a teetotaller – someone who abstained on principle, not out of deference to her.

Folklore and myth abound in the history of The Salvation Army and the story of its founders. Early biographies of Catherine by Frederick Booth-Tucker, their son-in-law, and of William by Harold Begbie were sanitised, almost fawning, tributes to their heroes. More recently, Roy Hattersley has given us Blood & Fire – William and Catherine Booth and their Salvation Army, a more rounded interpretation which dares to pose some interesting questions about the ‘cult-like’ activities of the early Salvationists.

I was therefore intrigued and delighted to discover that the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre held a copy of Catherine’s own Reminiscences, transcribed and edited in 2005 by David Bennett. Sadly Catherine died whilst still dictating her memoirs so these are an incomplete account of her work and life. There are many blanks with notations to check dates or specific events but these Reminiscences do seem to have been intended for publication. In the event, they formed the basis for Frederick Booth-Tucker’s book. In going back to Catherine’s own words, I felt that I was stripping away a layer of ‘spin’ and getting closer to the real woman.

Catherine Mumford, born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire in 1829 was, in many ways, an unusual child. Her mother was devoutly religious and refused for many years to send Catherine to school for fear she would be tainted by association with people of less pure views. Her father also used to preach occasionally and was a member of a temperance society.

In her childhood, and indeed throughout her life, Catherine suffered many illnesses, including back and heart problems, but used her periods of incapacitation to study the Bible and theological texts. Her detailed knowledge of the scriptures, acquired in her youth when she was banned from reading novels, would stand her in good stead in her future work. She could always find some Biblical quote to support her arguments.

By the age of 12, she was already secretary of a juvenile temperance society. She would write impassioned letters to the temperance magazines to which her father subscribed, apparently using a nom de plume. This was not mere youthful arrogance. Catherine was already displaying her obdurate nature, her unwillingness to compromise her principles.

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