A visit from the Founder

In contrast to the early welcome of The Salvation Army, which was not so warm at times, just five years after it first marched into Armidale, founder of the worldwide Salvation Army, General William Booth, received a hero’s welcome during a visit on 13 October 1891. An account of the visit, written by Robert Luxton, now sits in a frame at the Armidale Salvation Army hall. In it, he writes: Not only members of The Salvation Army, dressed in their colourful uniforms, and with their ‘timbrel’ brigades and brass bands, all of which added to the splendour and excitement, but other church and civic leaders were in attendance.