William Booth (1829-1912) was born in Nottingham and had a conversion at the age of 15. He experienced religious conversion at the age of 15. By 1855 Booth had become a travelling evangelist for the Methodist church. Trekking up and down the country by train, the recently married Booth and his wife, Catherine, were surviving on £2 a week. Having originally been inspired by an American hellfire preacher, he devoted his evenings ten years to religious work in the local slums. It is here that became acquainted with conditions of life among the very poor.
In 1865 Booth and his wife start their mission aimed at the unprivileged classes that live in unspeakable poverty in the East End of London. Thirteen years later, the annual Christmas appeal for William Booth’s Mission was being drawn up. The circular was in dialogue form and to one of the questions “What is the Christian mission?” the answer was “a volunteer army”. Suddenly Booth seized a pen, crossed out “volunteer” and wrote instead “salvation”, thus coining the title “Salvation Army” for his movement.
His book In Darkest England, and the Way Out (1890) contained proposals for the physical and spiritual redemption of the many down-and-outs Booth ministered to. It was not only a best-seller after its 1890 release, but also set the foundation for the Army's modern social welfare schemes. He wrote, "A starving man cannot hear you preaching. Give him a bowl of soup and he will listen to every word."
As a preacher Booth was a populist crowd puller. For example he was known to demonstrate the easy road to Hell by sliding down the stair-rail of his pulpit. A champion of the poor he railed against those who “reduce sweating to a fine art, who systematically and deliberately defraud the workman of his pay, who grind the faces of the poor and rob the widow and the orphan.”
In 1912 Booth, who had been in poor health for several years died. When asked what had been the secret of his success all the way through, the General replied “I will tell you the secret, God has had all there was of me!” The end of his last speech went as follows: “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God- I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”