Part 1: Goodbye Bramwell?
- deansimpson7
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
In the first of a four-part series. Salvos Online history writer BARRY GITTINS explores the tumultuous events of 1929, when General Bramwell Booth’s leadership of The Salvation Army reached a crisis point.
The year 1929, some 97 years ago, is mostly remembered by the general public for the crash of the Wall Street stock market on 24 October. The crash led to a global depression, massive losses of livelihoods and widespread misery and deprivation.
But for members of the Salvation Army, the year 1929 was the culmination of months (for some, years) of agony and discussion over the movement’s future and leadership.
Growing concerns over succession planning and the mental and physical health of General Bramwell Booth were explored through arguments, allegories, prayers, pitched battles of correspondence and invective, legal interventions and, of course, High Councils.
In a long, passionate letter to her big brother Bramwell on 9 April 1928 – which Commander Evangeline Booth placed in the hands of her peers (it was duly ‘printed for the convenience of members of the High Council’ the next year) – the US leader laid out her concerns ‘in definite detail’ for ‘the future stability of the Army’.
Evangeline was writing in the context of international concern about the General’s arbitrary decision-making processes (admittedly, following his father’s example closely) and his desire to anoint his own successor; Bramwell’s coming illness and infirmity would exacerbate her concerns and bring them to a head.
She believed Bramwell’s capacity to choose his own successor, she wrote (citing previous conversations they’d shared), ‘after your own reign [would] work an injustice [with] evil consequences which, unless faced and remedied … would ensue, releasing disruptive forces of incalculable injury to the Army …
“Since that day, the discontent has become so alarmingly prevalent that I could not, either in justice to you or to the organisation, do other than express to you [my request to] allay this growing unrest’.
“... I pray that you will read the writing on the wall of our organisation ...”
Evangeline reminded her eldest brother that “there is not any member of your family that stands in the same relationship to you, that you stood to the Founder. Not one of your children has had your training. And, dear Bramwell, can you not see that to preclude the High Council’s having a voice in the selection of one for this all-important office is jeopardising the Army’s future most seriously.”
Evangeline cited their father’s often-repeated belief that “The Army is not mine! It is not yours! The Army is God’s and the world’s!
“He must often have expressed to you – as he repeatedly did to me – his hopes and his fears respecting the perpetuity of the organisation … our voice is not heard [and] the leaders in our ranks are not consulted; are not taken into counsel, or even their views sought. This we cannot help but feel to be contrary to the Founder’s most positive method and intention, and strongly savors [sic] of despotism.
“[If] over your mind, or that of any other, there rests the shadow of a thought that I aspire to your position, let it be known to you, and to all the world, that such an ambition has never for a moment been entertained by me!” [Evangeline was to go on to become the Army’s fourth General.]
Predicting international protests that “I imagine will continue with increasing action”, Evangeline defended “the purity of my motives!” and wrote, “surely, Bramwell, you will credit me with all disinterested motive in my further urging … although you may think that I, with other of your most trusted officers, are mistaken … You see this is how I feel.
“We are near the end of life’s journey … I think I have said all that a sister can say.”
