William and Catherine Booth

William Booth was born in Nottingham in 1829 and worked as a pawnbroker's apprentice before becoming a Methodist preacher. Catherine Mumford, born in Derbyshire the same year, was a devout reader of theology who married him in 1855. In 1860 she began to preach, and her pamphlet Female Ministry (1859) defended women's right to preach. In 1865 the Booths began an independent mission among the poor of London's East End, which in 1878 took the name the Salvation Army, with uniforms, ranks, brass bands and open-air meetings, and with women serving as officers alongside men. The Army spread rapidly across Britain and abroad, despite violent opposition from mobs. It opened shelters, food depots and rescue homes. Catherine died of cancer in 1890. That year William published In Darkest England and the Way Out, a plan of farm and overseas colonies to employ the destitute. He travelled widely as the Army's general until his death in London in 1912, by which time it worked in dozens of countries. They held that preaching the gospel and practical mercy belong together.

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Faith: Christian preachers whose mission to the poor in London became The Salvation Army. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)