| Main Performers | Mrs Bramwell Booth,
Commissioner Catherine Booth,
Staff-Captain Marie Booth,
Colonel Mary Booth,
Lieut.-Colonel Bernard Booth,
Mrs Bernard Booth,
Major Olive Booth,
Staff-Captain Dora Booth,
Staff-Captain Wycliffe Booth,
Mrs Wycliffe Booth,
Mr Booth-Clibborn,
Mrs Booth-Clibborn,
Theodore Booth-Clibborn
General Higgins,
Mrs Higgins,
Mrs Mapp,
Lieutenant-Colonel Soper,
Treasurer Soper,
Brigadier Bertha Smith,
Adjutant Mrs Roberts,
Colonel George King,
Mrs Commissioner Peyron,
Commissioner Blowers,
Bandmaster Sherwood,
Lieutenant-Colonel Westergaard,
Lieutenant-Colonel Orsborn - speakers |
| Orchestra or Band | United Massed Bands of International Headquarter and the chief London districts (200 players) |
| Set List | Funeral procession to bier,
March 'Promoted to Glor' (Bands)
Opening Song: 'There Is A Better World'.
Tributes (General Higgins, Colonel Mary Booth, Mrs Commissioner Evangeline Booth, Mrs Bramwell Booth),
Song: 'Living In the Fountain' (Commissioner Catherine Booth),
Chorus: 'Walk With Me, My Lord' (Lieut.-Colonel Bernard Booth),
Songs: 'Go, Labour On, Spend And Be Spent' (Commissioner Blowers),
'Come And Rejoice With Me' (Staff-Captain Wycliffe Booth),
'For Ever Here My Rest Shall Be' (Commissioner Catherine Booth),
'Give Me The Wings of Faith To Rise' (Lieut.-Colonel Bernard Booth),
Solo: 'Oh, When Shall My Soul Find Her Rest?' (Lieut.-Colonel Bernard Booth),
Recession,
'Abide With Me' (United Bands) |
| Performance Notes | On 23 June 1929 a funeral service, the only 'lying-in-state' to have taken place at the Hall, ws held for General Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army. The coffin, wrapped in the Salvation Army banner, had been transported to the Hall on an open-top car from Embankment flanked and followed by hundreds of Salvationists before being carried into the centre of the Hall for a three-hour long service attended by 10,000 Salvationists from across the country. After the service the coffin was taken to be buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.
"Salvationists from all parts of the country and from many places abroad, as well as a large number of the general public, filled the Albert Hall last night for the first part of the funeral service for General Bramwell Booth. On Friday and Saturday thousands of people, representing every grade of society, had visited the Congress Hall at Clapton, where the body lay in state; and today a great Salvation Army procession will accompany the coffin in a march through London from the Victoria Embankment to Abney Park Cemetery, where the burial will take place.
Very slowly, while the congregation stood, the long procession passed through the centre of the building to the catafalque. There it broke up, and those who had composed it went to their places in the body of the hall or on the platform. General Higgins, Mrs Booth, and members of her family took their places in the centre of the platform immediately above the coffin, and General Higgins announced the opening hymn, 'There is a better world.'
At length the service, which had lasted nearly three hours, came to an end. The coffin was lifted from its place and borne slowly from the building, followed by Mrs Booth and the members of her family and other chief mourners, while the band played 'Abide with me'. From the Albert Hall it was taken to International Headquarters, in Queen Victoria Street, where it remained guarded last night."
(The Times, 24 June 1929)
Among those in the audience of 10,000 were Lady Frances Balfour, the Rev. G B Bourchier, a representative of the American Ambassador Captain C D Stewart, Sir Edward and Lady Sharp, Lady Williamson, Mrs Charles Pon, Mrs Broadbent, Miss D Mason, and Miss Strode. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1929/53) |