Booth, Catherine(nee Mumford)

1829 - Catherine Booth, the daughter of a coachbuilder, was born on the 17th of January in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

1841 - She was a devout Christian and by the age of twelve she had read the Bible eight times.

1843 - At the age of 14 she developed spinal curvature and four years later, incipient tuberculosis. It was while she was ill in bed that she began writing articles for magazines warning of the dangers of drinking alcohol. Catherine was a member of the local Band of Hope and a supporter of the national Temperance Society.

1852 - Met William Booth, a Methodist minister. William had strong views on the role of church ministers believing they should be "loosing the chains of injustice, freeing the captive and oppressed, sharing food and home, clothing the naked, and carrying out family responsibilities".

1855 - Despite their disagreements about the role of women in the church, the couple married on the 16th of June, at Stockwell New Chapel.

     - Catherine had eight children, all of whom were active in the Salvation Army.

1860 - She first started to preach.

1864 - The couple began in London's East End the Christian Mission, which later developed into the Salvation Army. She took a leading role in these revival services and could often be seen preaching in the dockland parishes of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. Though often imprisoned for preaching in the open air, members of the Salvation Army fought on, waging war on poverty and injustice.

1882 - A survey of London discovered that on one weeknight, there were almost 17,000 worshipping with the Salvation Army, compared to 11,000 in ordinary churches. Even, Dr. William Thornton, the Archbishop of York, had to accept that the Salvation Army was reaching people that the Church of England had failed to have any impact on.

1890 - Catherine died of cancer on 4th of October.