Ballington Booth was an Officer

Officer in The Salvation Army

An Officer in The Salvation Army is a Salvationist who is in essence a minister of the Christian faith, but who fulfills many other roles not usually fulfilled by clergy of other denominations...

 in The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

 and a co-founder of Volunteers of America

Volunteers of America

Volunteers of America, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is a national, nonprofit, faith-based human services organization providing support programs to more than two million people throughout the United States each year...

.

Born in Brighouse

Brighouse

Brighouse is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Calder, east of Halifax in the Pennines. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Ballington Booth was the second child of William

William Booth

William Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General...

 and Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth was the wife of the founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Army Mother'....

, founders of The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

 in 1878. As a teenager, he began preaching at Salvation Army open-air meetings, where he would often end by singing and playing his concertina

Concertina

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...

. He became a Colonel in The Salvation Army at the age of 23, when he was positioned as a Training Officer. He was later moved to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, followed by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

In 1886, he married Maud Charlesworth, who changed her name to Maud Ballington Booth

Maud Ballington Booth

Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth later changed her name to Maud Ballington Booth, was an Salvation Army leader and co-founder of the Volunteers of America....

, and they were assigned to the United States in April of the following year. The two became American citizens in 1895. In 1891, during a great depression, Ballington Booth instituted men's shelters similar to one begun in San Francisco.

Although Ballington and Maud Booth played a great part in organizing and structuring The Salvation Army in the United States, the couple left The Salvation Army when the organization reassigned them to positions outside the United States. In addition, Ballington Booth began to be in open conflict with his brother Bramwell

Bramwell Booth

Bramwell Booth, CH was the first Chief of Staff and the second General of The Salvation Army , succeeding his father, William Booth.-Biography:...

, who served as Chief of the Staff of The Salvation Army

Chief of the Staff of The Salvation Army

The Chief of the Staff of The Salvation Army is the officer who is second in command of the Army internationally, only behind the General, and is stationed at International Headquarters in London....

. They went on to form their own organization to reach out to the poor and the marginalized of American society. On March 8, 1896, they started God's American Volunteers, which was soon renamed Volunteers of America.

When the Booths left The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

 they took with them many of the Army's officers

Officer in The Salvation Army

An Officer in The Salvation Army is a Salvationist who is in essence a minister of the Christian faith, but who fulfills many other roles not usually fulfilled by clergy of other denominations...

 and soldiers

Soldier in The Salvation Army

A soldier is a Salvationist who is at least 14 years of age and has, with the approval of The Salvation Army Pastoral Care Council in each local Salvation Army corps , been enrolled as a warrior in the Christian denomination - The Salvation Army - after signing the Salvation Army Articles of War...

 as well as many of the Army's wealthy American supporters. In fact, in the first year of the Volunteers of America's operation two-thirds of the Volunteer forces were former Salvationists

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

. Many simply replaced the 'S' on their collars with the American flag. Salvation Army songs were adopted with Volunteer words. Their insignia and flag also were loosely based on that of The Salvation Army.

As William Booth was called the 'General'

Generals of The Salvation Army

thumbnail|left|1st General, William BoothGeneral is the title of the international leader of The Salvation Army, a Christian denomination with extensive charitable social services that gives quasi-military rank to its ministers .Usage of the term General began with the Founder of The Salvation...

 of The Salvation Army, so Ballington Booth became the General of Volunteers of America. In this capacity, he spoke with Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 about the effect of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 on society, but when Booth offered the services of the Volunteers of America to President Wilson, he was politely turned down. At the same time The Salvation Army was allowed to send its personnel with the American Expeditionary Force

American Expeditionary Force

The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...

. He also spoke with Franklin Roosevelt about charity efforts throughout the Depression.

Ballington Booth led Volunteers of America for 43 years, and on his death in 1940 he was replaced by his wife Maud Booth as General. He was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery

Ferncliff Cemetery

Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...

in New York.

The Cross Is Not Greater was written by Ballington Booth, both lyric and music, in 1892.