'City Honours Late General Booth'

1 portrait of William Booth

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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'City Honours Late General Booth'

by Ernest Brooks, for Central News Ltd
vintage print, 29 August 1912
7 5/8 in. x 9 3/4 in. (195 mm x 248 mm) image size
Given by Terence Pepper, 2011
Photographs Collection
NPG x137203

Artistsback to top

  • Ernest Brooks, Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 21 portraits.
  • Central News Ltd, Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 17 portraits.

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This portraitback to top

Although the Salvation Army had faced much initial opposition, public opinion regarding Booth and the Salvation Army had changed significantly in the last years of his life. When he died on 20 August 1912, 35,000 people attended his memorial service in Olympia and 5,000 Salvationists marched behind the cortege. Wreaths were sent by King George V and other heads of state. This photograph shows Booth’s horse-drawn coffin outside Mansion House in the City of London and was published in The Year 1912 Illustrated which summarised the year’s most significant events.

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Current affairs

The Royal Flying Corps is established. During the Great War, planes and balloons were used mainly for reconnaissance and observation before technological advances made them fast enough and manoeuvrable enough to attack enemy positions and fight in the air. Arthur (Bomber) Harris won distinction as a pilot destroying five enemy aircraft in the war. In the Second World War he became Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Art and science

George Bernard Shaw writes Pygmalion.
Charles Babbage's invents the Analytic Machine. Considered to be the forerunner to the modern computer, the machine was able to make automatic mathematical calculations.

International

Scott leads the British Expedition to the South Pole reaching it in January 1912 only to discover that the rival Norwegian party had beaten them by a month. All members of Scott's team perished on the return journey. Captain Oates' famous last words were immortalised in Scott's diary: 'I am just going outside and may be some time.'
The 'unsinkable' Titanic strikes an iceberg and goes down on its maiden journey between Southampton and New York.

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