William Booth

William Booth, the son of a builder,  was born in Nottingham in 1829. He moved to London in 1849 and worked in a pawnbroker's shop. Having become a Christian when he was 15 he became a preacher and was committed to social reform. 

He married Catherine Mumford, who was equally fervent about social reform,  on 16 June 1855 at Stockwell New Chapel.

In 1865 they founded the Whitechapel Christian Mission to help feed and house the poor. The Mission later became organized along military lines with the preachers becoming known as officers and Booth was the General.

Catherine believed in the equality of women and was an inspired speaker and her husband was influenced by her beliefs.

William protested against sweated labour, a situation in which the destitute were so desperate for any kind of employment that they worked long arduous hours for a pittance. It was partly because of his successful establishment of a match-making factory in Old Ford, London, that this bad practice came to an end.

Previously, a woman and her two children would work all week to gain an income of four shillings, and as an added penance they were robbed of their health into the bargain. 

Many such workers in the Bryant & May factory contracted necrosis - known as 'phossy-jaw' - a horribly disfiguring and terminal cancer caught from the poisonous yellow phosphorous into which the matches were dipped. The match companies made large profits for both owner and shareholder. Many companies used the safer red phosphorous and eventually B & M were forced to do the same.

William Booth died in 1912 and his eldest son, William Bramwell Booth, became the leader of the Salvation Army.

Link to Salvation Army website for more details about him.