Best known for their brass bands and uniformed officers, the Salvation Army is uniquely recognizable worldwide. What is less known is the extent of their work which goes far beyond a commitment to temperance, bugles and bibles, prayer and preaching. This is the fascinating story of how Reverend William Booth started his evangelical and philanthropic work, assisted by his wife Catherine, in East London in 1865, which became a 21st century global mission spanning more than 120 countries with support from thousands of volunteers in social welfare and education programs. This lively illustrated...

For 150 years, district nurses have been taking care of the sick in their own homes, providing health care, moral support, and wise advice to people of all ages and classes, in rural areas, towns and cities the length and breadth of the country. Begun in 1860s Liverpool by philanthropist William Rathbone, the District Nursing Movement was founded to care for the poor who had no access to medical care. This illuminating book shows how the role of the district nurse has moved on greatly since Queen Victoria's Jubilee, expanding and developing to provide a broad range of invaluable health care...

When the first Women's Institute was formed in Llanfair, Wales in October 1915, no one could have foreseen how this small-scale experiment would grow to become, by the early twenty-first century, an organisation with a membership of approximately 205,000 in 6,500 branches in towns, cities and villages across Britain. The organization instilled a new and enterprising spirit into the life of villages and their womenfolk, and gave them unique opportunities to share activities. This book traces the story and evolution of the WI: through the decades punctuated by two world wars, where food...

The boy scout movement, started by Lieutenant General Baden-Powell (1857 - 1941) in 1907, has had an enduring impact on British society, providing boys from the age of six upwards with 'instruction in good citizenship.' Using scout archive material, original photographs, advertisements, objects and personal recollections, this book traces the history of the scouting movement from its roots in the Edwardian era when Baden-Powell ran an experimental camp held at Brownsea Island, Dorset attended by a handful of boys. Moving through the decades, the story unfolds of a movement which is a...