Booth, Bramwell, 1856-1929

William Bramwell Booth was born on March 8, 1856, in Halifax, Yorkshire, England.

He was a British charity worker and social reformer. He was educated at home, briefly at a prep school and the City of London School. In 1870, at the age of 14, he started to help manage his father's Christian Mission and became an active full-time collaborator in 1874. When the Christian Mission became The Salvation Army in 1878, he became its officer. In 1881, he was appointed the Chief of the Staff of The Salvation Army and, upon his father's death in 1912, he became the General of The Salvation Army, a position he held until 1929. His early years in command were complicated by the First World War, as the organization had members on both sides of the war. When he travelled, he increasingly gave control of The Salvation Army to his wife and his children, resulting in being accused of nepotism and voted out in 1929. The same year King George V appointed him a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for all his contributions. Booth was the author of the books on history of The Salvation Army, "Echoes and Memories" (1925), "These Fifty Years" (1929), and the booklet "The Advantages of Vegetarian Diet."

In 1882, he married Florence Eleanor Soper (1861–1957). He died on June 16, 1929, in Hertfordshire, England.