Part 4: The denouncement
- deansimpson7
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
In the last 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 official bulletin that the High Council issued from Sunbury, on 13 February 1929, noted that:
FORMAL RESOLUTION ADJUDICATING GENERAL UNFIT FOR OFFICE AND REMOVING HIM THEREFROM WAS PROPOSED SECONDED AND COUNCIL HAD PLACED BEFORE IT EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT THERETO CONSISTING MEDICAL REPORTS LETTERS WRITTEN BY GENERAL AND REPORT DEPUTATION TO GENERAL … ADJUDICATION VOTE TAKEN 6.30 P.M. RESULTED – FOR RESOLUTION 52 – AGAINST 5 – ABSTAINED VOTING 4. COUNCIL PROCEEDED ELECT NEW GENERAL [STOP] COMMISSIONER HIGGINS … WAS DULY ELECTED AND ACCEPTED OFFICE AS GENERAL.
SIGNED – BULLETIN COMMITTEE.
The death of General Bramwell Booth laid meagre balm on some wounds. The event, long expected and feared, seemed to have also been something of an anti-climax.
Commissioner David Lamb in London, in a personal letter to Commissioner Sowton in Sydney on 20 June 1929, commented that “although the Passing of General Bramwell appeared to come somewhat suddenly, it really was not a surprise to some of us”.
The person who more than any other, save his parents, had shaped ‘the Army’ had succumbed to his infirmities. Grief was genuine among all; loyalists and High Council supporters alike.
The outworking of these events was long and complex.
By 30 October 1929, Edward Higgins, the new General and former Chief of the Staff, was using the Daily News to dismiss what was termed the “myth of vendetta against [the] Booth family” and “legal action to secure property transfer”.
The media blitz was prompted by anonymous attacks that had alleged “victimisation of members of the family of the late General Bramwell Booth, and extraordinary measures to cope with a supposed financial crisis within the Army”.
“There is no ‘vendetta’ against anybody,” General Higgins stated unequivocally. “Our wish is that there should be complete unity within the Army, and that members of the Booth family should continue with us their splendid work for the Army.”
Higgins, “to his great sorrow”, had to resort to the courts to have Salvation Army trust property relinquished from “the executors of the late general Bramwell Booth”: “It is clear that nothing but an Order of the Court will induce the executors to place the property and funds of The Salvation Army under the control of General Higgins,” the Daily Mail reported.
General Higgins took the opportunity to deny that “Colonel Mary Booth was recalled from Germany without explanation and is now unemployed …
... that Colonel Bernard Booth is now a ‘glorified office boy’ without authority, having previously been secretary of the Young People’s Work …
... that members of the Booth family had been invited to address provisional meetings, yet the invitations have not reached them…
... that Staff-Captain Dora Booth has been ‘banished’ to a minor post in France …
... that Major Olive Booth is without work …
... that no member of the Booth family is now allowed to speak in public [and] that it was made impossible for Commissioner Catherine Booth to speak at the Founder’s Centenary celebrations at the Albert Hall …
... that Commissioner Lucy Booth-Hellberg, the late General’s sister, has been ‘banished’ to South America…”
Adding to these denied claims were another six formal refutations of whispered allegations, including a denial by Higgins of “a revolt among field officers of the Army”.
The Salvation Army rebuilt the confidence of its members and the general public worldwide, slowly and surely, weathering its leadership crisis.
Its holistic mission emphasised, its structures affirmed, its crisis met and resolved, the ship sailed on.
WATCH MORE: The story surrounding the first ever Salvation Army High Council and the removal from office of General Bramwell Booth in 1929. Bill Hamilton investigates with the help of General John Larsson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBEvYfWEbfI
