I Go to the Salvation Army

The Commanding Officer

A Salvation Army corps is run by a Commanding Officer or Officers. They have a similar role to that of a Minister or a Priest in another church. In the case of a married couple they are both commissioned officers. Commissioned officers are men and women who have left their original job and taken a course of training.

This prepares them to work full time in The Salvation Army. Both men and women have this opportunity because William Booth felt that every willing, capable worker should be accepted for service in the Army.

Training to be an Officer

Officers are trained at The Salvation Army's William Booth College in London, or some are trained while actually running a corps. An officer while training is called a cadet. After the prescribed period of training the cadet is commissioned to the rank of Captain.

Many Salvation Army officers are women. William Booth's wife, Catherine, was not content with being a busy wife and mother like most Victorian women. She felt that she must be active in the 'war' which the Army fights, and other women were glad to follow her example. William Booth once said that his best soldiers were women! He had proved that women were capable of sharing work with men. Often they became leaders. Evangeline Booth, one of his daughters, became the General, the international leader of the Army.