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The War Cry | JULY 2015
"We are the whole of the Army!"
Major Booth-Tucker responded.
Booth-Tucker and his team had a fiery determina-
tion to preach Christ crucified among the poorest of
India. They were jailed numerous times for their
public marches and open-air meetings. On one occa-
sion, a police officer interrupted his preaching during
an open-air meeting, shouting, "In the name of Her
Majesty, Queen of England and Empress of India, I
order you to disperse!"
Booth-Tucker replied, "In the name of His Majesty,
King of kings and Lord of lords, I command you to
stand aside!" He got 30 days in prison.
The major and his fellow Salvationists adopted the
way of life of the outcasts they worked hard to reach.
They exchanged their uniforms for the saffron robes
of the Indian fakir, and they assumed Indian names.
Booth-Tucker's preaching proved successful in the
lower castes, and many were converted. With the
Army's tremendous growth in India, he was pro-
moted to the rank of Commissioner.
In February 1887, a cholera epidemic claimed Lou-
isa's life. The following year, Booth-Tucker remarried,
to Emma Booth, the Founder's daughter. The Booth
family's usual practice was to add the bride's maiden
name to the groom's, which is how, Frederick Tucker
got the name Frederick Booth-Tucker. Nine children
were born to him and Emma over their marriage,
which spanned three decades. Sadly, three of the nine
did not survive infancy.
By 1896, the Booth-Tuckers were appointed to over-
see the Army's work in the United States, following the
infamous defection of Emma's brother, Ballington. The
Founder gave Commissioner Emma Booth-Tucker the
title of the Consul. Tragically, in 1903, Emma died in a
train wreck en route to meet her husband in Chicago.
Booth-Tucker continued to lead the Army's work in
the United States until he returned to International
Headquarters as foreign secretary in 1904.
He married for the third time, to Colonel Minnie
Reid, the daughter of a one-time governor of Bombay.
The couple returned to India as Special Commis-
sioners for India and Ceylon--pioneering the
Army's work among India's criminal tribes.
They built that successful ministry from 1908 until
1919. In 1913, the Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge,
vested the Commissioner with the gold Kaiser-i-Hind
Medal in recognition of the many years of ministry
to India's poor.
An ailing Booth-Tucker returned to England in
1919, but his relationship with General Bramwell
Booth, his former brother-in-law, had cooled. He was
never given another senior command. He was, how-
ever, admitted into the Order of the Founder in 1920.
He retired from active service in 1924.
Over his storied career, Frederick Booth-Tucker
wrote many songs and poems, and even compiled
One Hundred Favorite Songs of The Salvation Army
,
a project he completed in 1899.
He served as the first editor of The Officer maga-
zine and wrote several notable books, among them:
Life of Catherine Booth
(1892); The Consul (1903);
and Muktifauj (1923), the history of the Army for the
first 40 years in India and Ceylon.
Commissioner Frederick Booth-Tucker was pro-
moted to Glory on July 17, 1929, and is buried in
Abney Park Cemetery, London.
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