Early beginnings

The Salvation Army marched into Tamworth on 9 January 1886. One of its pioneer officers was Alexander Canty (pictured) who was one of the earliest Australian Salvation Army officers and who helped start the Army’s work in Sydney. The first Salvation Army officers appointed to lead the work in Tamworth were Captain Lambert and Lieutenant Northy.

The mysterious Alexander Canty

Alexander Canty does not appear to have been the subject of any real biography, and he was not listed in Percival Dale’s Salvation Cavalcade, containing mini biographies of early-day officers, or in his War Cry series “Warriors in Australian Warfare”. Therefore, Alexander and Mrs Canty remain a bit of a mystery.

Alexander Canty was among the first party to start the work in Sydney. Born in 1856, he moved to Adelaide “in search of riches”. He was the first Australian-born officer, having been converted and made a soldier at Adelaide I Corps. He played euphonium in the Adelaide and Sydney bands. As a Corporal he was appointed as the second corps officer at Adelaide I Corps on 18 January 1882. His next appointment with his wife and a baby was as a Cadet-Captain and corps officer at Port Adelaide (the third corps in Australia). It was from here that the Cantys went to help open the work in Sydney.

After helping begin work in Sydney, Canty pioneered Newtown Corps as the second corps in Sydney and went on to open Goulburn Corps on 1 September 1883. Interestingly, they are not listed as the first officers at Newtown or Goulburn in the official records of the Sydney Heritage Centre, but they are listed as later corps officers. They also held a number of other appointments in Australia, including Waterloo, Tamworth, Orange, Waverley, Forest Lodge, Balmain and Newcastle, before transferring to New Zealand in April 1896.

Their first appointment in New Zealand was to Palmerston North on 16 April 1896. This was followed by further appointments at Nelson, Blenheim, Oamaru, Invercargill, Port Chalmers and Timaru, where Canty suffered a breakdown. He was placed on the pension fund and worked as a caretaker and cleaner at the Dunedin Corps hall. In November 1904, he became an agent for Hamodava Tea. In 1906, he was back on active service, filling in at Port Chalmers, Blenheim and Westport. Unfortunately, he had a slight stroke in 1909 and was ordered to have absolute rest. He had some temporary social appointments, but in 1915 he was officially pensioned. His wife was listed in New Zealand Army records as a pensioned officer and widow in 1926.

There must have been a second Alexander Canty, perhaps a son, Ensign Alex Canty, who was listed as a corps officer at Charters Towers in 1919. He was at Broken Hill when the barracks was blown down by a storm during a holiness meeting in 1921 or 1922. These may well be the same Adjutant and Mrs Canty who were appointed to Gisborne (NZ) in 1924, followed by Masterton Corps.