er t t e l s w e N seum u M l a c i r o Hist
May 2014
You Should Know … That Commissioner Harold Shoults started playing the cornet at nine years old.
Director’s Word A Canadian Pacific ocean liner departed Quebec City bound for Liverpool, England on May 28, 1914 with one thousand four hundred and seventy seven travelers on board. The Salvation Army Canadian Staff Band and their family members were one hundred and sixty seven strong. They were on their way to London for the International Congress of 1914.
Despite these preparations the Empress sank on May 29, 1914 in the St. Lawrence River. One thousand and twelve lives were lost.
and placed the full blame on the chief officer for changing course in the fog and failing to inform the Captain until “the mischief had been done.”
An inquiry relieved Henry George Kendall, Captain of the Norwegian collier, Storstad,
After being struck sharply in the side, the Empress listed in total darkness and the crew could not put out life boats. The Empress sank in fourteen minutes. Major Frank Morris testified “the darkness, the explosions, undercurrents, the water alive with hundreds of human beings struggling for their lives…the final sinking of the ship, which dragged us down into those icy waters…I am here to testify that my comrades knew how to live and thanks be to God, they knew how to die.”
The Empress of Ireland had crossed the ocean flawlessly ninety five times. The sinking of the Titanic had brought about changes in ocean liner preparedness. The crew had practiced cranking the bulkhead door shut and loading lifeboats.
Major Jo-ann Price
H i s to r i c a l C o m m i s s i o n S p e a ks . . . The Salvation Army enjoys a rich scouting experience that goes all the way back to 1913 when General William Booth responded to an invitation a few years earlier from Robert Baden-Powell to consider becoming a member of the governing body of world scouting. Booth
saw the possibilities of scouting and inaugurated the Life Saving Scout Movement. That step marked the beginning of a multi-faceted troop program for young boys and girls in The Salvation Army. In 1915 the Life Saving Girl Guards was established and eventually fostered a younger
girls program called Sunbeams in 1921. These programs have enjoyed a healthy existence with only slight structural, cosmetic and name changes. Life Saving Girl Guards is simply Girl Guards now. Uniform design has been simplified and a bit more universal between the two groups. Continued on reverse ….
SALVATION ARMY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Phone: 847-294-2135 E-mail: Central_Museum@usc.salvationarmy.org
New to the Collection
World War I postcard given to the
This figurine was found in our
museum by Janice L. Lalone
collections
Black Arrow pin donated by Colonel Harry Smith
We’re on the Web! www.uschistoricalmuseum.org
Commission speaks Con’t As for the boys’ programs here in America, many Corps simply chose to sponsor a regular BSA troop. However, the Army made a very concerted effort in the 80s to establish their own program called Adventure Corps. Some serious rewriting took place in 1995 and currently the two stage program of Explorers and Rangers is experiencing great success. The Army owes a debt of gratitude to Baden Powell, a British Army officer who while station in India, realized his men lacked basic knowledge of First Aid and simple means of survival in the wild. The whole story is a bit more involved than that, but he basically wrote a small handbook at the turn of the century to teach his men a number of frontier skills
and help them learn leadership basics. His handbook had caught the attention of young English boys so he proceeded to explore the prospects developing something geared towards this age group. About that same time in America, Earnest Thompson Seton was organizing a group of boys called the Woodcraft Indians and Daniel Carter Beard organized the Sons of Daniel Boone. Both groups had similar interests in educating boys. Eventually these three efforts converged and Boy Scouts of America developed and was Incorporated in 1910. In a little less than twenty years the foundation for Cub Scouting was established by the
parent organization. Programs for girls developed about the same time. These details come from the website Scouting.org and Wikipedia where you can learn many more interesting elements to this story. Be sure to stop by the Historical Museum’s area at Commissioning where there will be a large display of Salvation Army troop artifacts.
Major Gary Van Hoesen
You Should Know … That there are 579 headstones in the Salvation Army plot at Glen Oak cemetery.