Frederick Booth-Tucker
From Sawiki
Frederick St. George de Lautour Tucker joined the Salvation Army from the Bengal Civil Service in 1881 and spent his early Army days planning the invasion of foreign lands before being posted to Camberwell Corps in July 1882. On September the 19th of the same year he landed at Bombay with a force of just three officers to open fire for the Salvation Army in India. Although thousands attended the meetings, almost all of Major Tucker's early converts were already professing Christians.
Tucker saw the Indian caste system as his main problem, and set out to win the souls of India's sixty million outcasts. To achieve this he decided the Salvationists should embrace the way of life of the outcasts. Their uniforms became the Indian fakir's saffron robes and they took Indian names, Tucker was known as Fakir Singh, the Lion of God.
Progress was swift and many converts were made, genuine converts who wholeheartedly embraced the Salvationist ideals. Following his initial success in India, Frederick Tucker was promoted to the rank of Commissioner. He first wife, Louisa, died in 1887, and on the 10th of April 1888 he married Emma Booth, daughter of the Founder at Clapton Congress Hall.
In 1891 they were appointed to International Headquarters as joint Commissioners for Foreign Affairs. In 1896 Frederick and Emma Booth-Tucker were appointed joint Territorial Commanders of the U.S.A. In October 1903 Emma was killed in a train crash while traveling to meet her husband in Chicago.
He continued the work in America alone until in 1904 he returned to International Headquarters as Foreign Secretary. In June 1906 Booth-Tucker was married for the third time, to Colonel Minnie Reid. In 1907 they were posted to India and the following year started work among India's criminal tribes.
In 1913 Frederick Booth-Tucker was invested with the gold medal of Kaiser-i-Hind by the Viceroy in recognition of the years of service he had given to India. It was 1919 when Booth-Tucker returned to England, but his relationship with General Bramwell Booth had cooled greatly over the years and he never again held a senior command.
In 1920 Frederick Booth-Tucker was honoured by the Salvation Army when he was admitted to The Order Of The Founder. Retirement from active service came in 1924, but throughout the twenties the Booth-Tuckers led many spiritual campaigns in Britain and Europe and National Congress in the Baltic States and Finland. Frederick Booth-Tucker was promoted to Glory in July 1929.
