Bramwell Booth

William Bramwell Booth, CH (8 March 1856 – 16 June 1929) was a British church and charity leader who was the first Chief of Staff (1881–1912) and the second General of The Salvation Army (1912–1929), succeeding his father, William Booth.

Biography

Booth was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, England. He was named after William Bramwell, a Methodist revivalist. The oldest child born to William Booth and Catherine Mumford, Bramwell Booth had two brothers and five sisters, including Evangeline Booth, Catherine Booth-Clibborn, Emma Booth and Ballington Booth. The Booth family regularly moved from place to place as William Booth's ministry necessitated until the family finally settled in London in 1865. Bramwell Booth was involved in The Salvation Army right from its origins as the obscure Christian Mission, established in Whitechapel in 1865, into an international organisation with numerous and varied social activities. He was educated at home, briefly at a preparatory school and at the City of London School, where he was bullied.

Known to his family as 'Willie', as a youth he suffered poor health and had a slight hearing loss. In 1870, aged just 14, Bramwell Booth started to help in the management of his father's Christian Mission and in the cheap food kitchens set up in its early days. He had intended to study medicine and had a fear of public speaking, but despite these obstacles he became William Booth's amanuensis, adviser and administrator. He became an active full-time collaborator with his father in 1874, and an officer when the Christian Mission became The Salvation Army in 1878.