William and Catherine Booth

Born in modest circumstances, Salvation Army founder William Booth's social conscience was roused when working in a pawnbroker's in London. He met his wife Catherine, a fellow refugee from the Methodists at a chapel in Clapham, marrying her in 1855. Catherine had been active in the temperance movement from a very young age and was a staunch defender of women's right to preach.

William Booth sowed the seeds of the Salvation Army when he started evangelical preaching in a tent in Whitechapel. This fondness for eyecatching and novel ways of spreading his message carried on in later life when he toured the country in the relatively new technology, the motor car, from Land's End to Aberdeen in 1904.

Catherine died in 1890 and William in 1912. It's said two million people lined the streets to view his funeral procession and 40 Salvation Army bands played him to rest.