People have said that he poked his umbrella into the ground and talked to it, like a man mad, to attract a crowd. Others asserted that he was so striking in appearance, and eloquent in speech that he would not have needed such a device.

William Booth was born in Nottingham in 1829 in the terraced house in Sneinton now preserved as No.12 Notintone Place. His father, Samuel Booth, a nail maker by trade was unable to come to terms with the world of machines and mass production which had made him redundant. He tried to set up a number of building companies but recurring trade recessions ruined him. "Make money", he said to his son, and died a bankrupt. Booth’s mother was stern and unaffectionate.

Life for William and his four sisters was not easy. He began his working life as an apprentice pawnbroker and his daily contact with the poor and destitute made him concerned to do something for them. He became caught up in the working class movement of the day known as Chartism, and probably signed The Charter; but then conversion in a Nottingham Wesleyan Chapel gave him a new outlet for his strong feelings. He became a Methodist New Connexion minister. Supported and encouraged by his wife Catherine, he became a successful revivalist preacher. Too successful it seems. Constantly in demand as a visiting speaker he was refused permission by the Methodists, and resigned as a minister. Given to black moods of despair, he was tempted to give up preaching altogether; but then two missioners in East London heard him addressing the crowds outside the Blind Beggar public house, and invited him to front a tent mission in White Chapel. The date of this mission, 2nd July 1865, is taken by the Salvation Army as the date of its foundation. Booth was then just 36, had no steady income, and had a wife and six children to support with a seventh on the way. After the tent meetings he set up the Christian Mission, designed to reach the poor of London’s East End. In this he was helped by a Mr. Samuel Morley who promised him 100 a year.

After one year Booth’s Christian Mission had over sixty converts, but the work was hard and dangerous. Catherine Booth said of her husband that he would; "stumble home night after night, haggard with fatigue. Often his clothes were torn and bloody, bandages swathed his head where a stone had struck." Yet progress was slow and it was not until 1878 that a change of name brought to the organization a change of image and with it a fresh appeal. Booth’s movement had always had a slight military flavor; and he suggested that it should change its name to “The Volunteer Army.” However this would confuse it with the real “Volunteer Army,” the Victorian forerunner of today’s “Territorials,” and an undisciplined rabble in the eyes of most people. In a moment of inspiration Booth crossed out the word “Volunteer” and wrote the word “Salvation” in its place. A new concept had been born. The military aspect was attractive in the atmosphere of Victorian England. Recruits were given ranks and a uniform was developed. A banner was devised in red, blue and gold with a sun symbol and the motto “Blood and Fire,” ("the blood is the Blood of Christ and the fire is the fire of the Holy Spirit").

Marching bands were formed and in military style the Salvationists would march into a town "to do Battle with the Devil and his Hosts and make a Special Attack on his territory." The emphasis was on saving lost souls by bringing sinners to repentance. This was symbolism that ordinary people in Victorian England could