Catherine Booth
Mother of The Salvation Army (1829–1890)
Catherine Booth (née Mumford, 17 January 1829 – 4 October 1890) was co-founder of The Salvation Army, along with her husband William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Mother of The Salvation Army'.
Life
She was born as Catherine Mumford in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, in 1829 to Methodist parents, John Mumford and Sarah Milward. Her father was an occasional lay preacher and carriage maker. Her family later moved to Boston, Lincolnshire, and later lived in Brixton, London. From an early age, Catherine was a serious and sensitive girl. She had a strong Christian upbringing and was said to have read the Bible through eight times before the age of 12.
During Catherine's adolescence a spinal curvature led to years of enforced idleness. She kept herself busy, however, and was especially concerned about the problems of alcoholism. As a young girl she had served as secretary of a Juvenile Temperance Society writing articles for a temperance magazine.
“Catherine Booth” enters the record as mother of The Salvation Army (1829–1890). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Catherine, Booth and Mother can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q431614. VIAF identifies the subject as 2459813. The Library of Congress control number is n50045728. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1829 and 1890.
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This entry incorporates text from “Catherine Booth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.