Herbert Booth

Herbert Henry Howard Booth (26 August 1862 – 25 September 1926) was the third son of William and Catherine Booth. He oversaw the Limelight Department's development and he was the writer and director for Soldiers of the Cross.

Herbert received little formal elementary education but became a student at Allesly Park College and the Congregational Institute at Nottingham. At the age of twenty, Herbert began helping his sister Kate Booth in building up The Salvation Army in France. Two years later, he was given charge of England's cadet officer training. He wrote many songs for The Salvation Army and became a bandmaster and a songster leader. He was the first Salvation Army Officer to use the magic lantern for presentations in England.

In 1886, Herbert Booth took ill and went to Australia to rest and heal. While staying in a mining town there, he found a gold nugget. He eventually forged a ring out of it for his future wife, Dutch Salvationist Cornelie Schoch.

Herbert Booth took command of all Salvation Army operations in the British Isles when he was 26. Then, from 1892–1896, he was the Commandant for the Salvation Army in Canada. Next, he was appointed to the Australasian Territory where his health continued to deteriorate. He struggled with depression, but was still very active in his position.

In Australia, Herbert took considerable interest in the Salvation Army's Limelight Department there. He soon authorized extensive expansion, allowing Limelight to make Australia's first fictional narrative film in 1897. The following year, he and early cinematographer Joe Perry produced Social Salvation, a multimedia presentation that portrayed the work of The Salvation Army in its Australasian Territory.

Herbert, whose relations with his brother Bramwell had gone from bad to worse, hoped that some close contact with his father might help heal his rift with London. It did not. William Booth had total confidence in Bramwell and left Herbert and Cornelie "utterly dispirited and broken-hearted." To help shake off the depression, Herbert threw himself into a period of frenetic activity. Seventy projects were launched to celebrate his father’s seventieth birthday, one of which was the building of an officer training garrison at Victoria Parade, East Melbourne. To enlist trainees, Herbert wrote and directed Soldiers of the Cross, a recruiting show that featured stories of early Christian martyrs. Soldiers of the Cross, written and directed by Herbert, again with Joe Perry as cinematographer, premiered at the Melbourne Town Hall on 13 September 1900.

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