“It is not given to every man who sets out with a great purpose to accomplish his aims.  But of General Booth it may be said that he did more.  His Movement reached dimensions of which he probably never dreamed in its early days, yet the extraordinary results made him ever hungrier for conquest.  In a way the latter years of his life were perhaps the most notable of his whole career.  He displayed a vitality and enthusiasm which seemed to increase with the weight of time.  At a time when most men seek a greater measure of repose, General Booth worked on with all the freshness of early years.  And it can be said that he has died in harness.  He did not lift his finger from the pulse of the far-reaching Organisation which he brought into being until death called.

“The story of the growth of The Salvation Army is the most remarkable in the history of the work of the spiritual, social, and material regeneration of the submerged.  From the by-ways of all the world human derelicts, which other agencies passed by, have been rescued.  No one was too degraded, too repulsive to be neglected.  The work is too great to be estimated in a way which can show its extent.  It has been achieved mainly by two great factors.  The first is perfect organisation.  Lord Wolseley once described General Booth as the greatest organiser in the world.  The second feature was the wonderful personality of The Army’s chief.  He impressed it not only upon his colleagues but upon those whom he wished to rescue, and on the public at large.  He radiated human sympathy and enthusiasm.  His loss will be a heavy one for the world; it will be a severe blow for The Army.  But we cannot think that his good work has not been built upon sound foundations, and that the war he directed so ably and so long will be relaxed.  Nationally The Army has done magnificent work in fifty countries, and it has, therefore, tended to promote a greater spirit of brotherhood among the nations.  To-day the whole world will unite to pay its tribute to a splendid life of devotion to a great cause.  To that world he leaves a splendid example, and it will be the highest tribute that can be paid to his memory to keep green that lofty example which he set before all peoples.”

The Daily Telegraph, August 21, 1912

“It is with no ordinary or conventional regret that we record this morning the death of General Booth.  The news will be received by hundreds of thousands of Salvationists with profound and reverential grief, and by many who are not Salvationists, and who never could be, with respectful and sympathetic sorrow.  For, whatever we may think of William Booth and of the wonderful Organisation which he so triumphantly established, it is certain that he belonged to the company of saints, and that during the eighty-three years of a strenuous life, he devoted himself, so far as in him lay, to the solemn duty of saving men’s souls and extending the Divine Kingdom on earth.