Thomas Coombs
From Sawiki
Thomas B. Coombs was part of the War Congress that in August 1878 approved the Deed Poll establishing a military style structure that transformed the Christian Mission into the Salvation Army. Sources differ by a year or two, but Coombs was about 18 at the time of the War Congress. He had joined the movement at Wellingborough, Northampton two or three years earlier.
The Salvation Army described Coombs as the "son of toilers". He was high spirited and extremely energetic. He was also musical and accumulated a vast repertoire of songs. It was reported in 1904 that "he sings more songs than any man living within our ranks".
Thomas Coombs married Nellie Cope, an active member of the Christian Mission and a highly successful evangelist. Coombs and Nellie became Salvation Army officers and Thomas quickly gained positions of authority, including that of Divisional Officer in Wales.
The Canadian Salvation Army was initially administered by the United States organisation, but in June 1884 it became a separate territory with Coombs charge. Meanwhile, Nellie had long term health problems, and "it was prophesied that the change would be the death of her". Undeterred, the couple arrived in Canada to take control of some 40 corps and a hundred officers. Coombs was 24, with the rank of Major. A few months later, he was promoted to Commissioner.
Thomas Coombs pioneered the Salvation Army’s work in Quebec, despite fierce resistance. At the first anniversary celebrations, a march led by Coombs along one of Quebec City's principal streets was attacked by a stone throwing, club wielding mob. Twenty one of the marchers were seriously injured, an officer was stabbed in the head and the drummer’s eye "was gouged out on to his cheek, driving him to madness." Despite this "baptism of blood", as the press called it, the Salvation Army under Coombs made progress among both English and French speaking Canadian communities.
In 1889, after five years in Canada, Coombs took over as Australasian Commmander from Commissioner T. Henry Howard. Again there were dire warnings about the impact of the climate on Nellie’s health. He also had to guide the Salvation Army through the period of poverty and distress caused by the depression of the 1890s. Calls on the Army’s social work greatly increased, putting strain on financial resources. It fell to Coombs to both direct the Army’s relief efforts and to raise money to pay for them. In his seven years in Australia, Coombs built up the movement, increasing the number of corps from 250 to over 400.
In 1891, Coombs launched the Limelight Brigade, after Joe Perry demonstrated the potential of his magic lantern with an advertising campaign for General William Booth’s visit to Australia. In 1894, Coombs purchased a building at 65 - 73 Bourke Street Melbourne for the new Australasian headquarters, a building that housed the Limelight Department studios and is still occupied by the Salvation Army today.
In 1896, Coombs was recalled to London and put in charge of the British Territory. Over the next eight years he was in close contact with General William Booth and the other principal leaders of the movement. In 1904, following the International Congress, he was one of the few to accompany General William Booth on his first evangelical motor mission from Land’s End to Aberdeen.
In late 1904, Thomas Coombs was reappointed to the Canadian Territory Command. His three children had grown and were either Salvation Army officers or in officer training. Within a year of arriving, and with his characteristic energy, he twice toured the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, travelling 35,000 miles and overseeing the conversion of some 3,000 people.
William Booth's Darkest England scheme failed to achieve significant migration of Britain’s poor to Australia or other countries in the Southern Hemisphere. However, in Canada, the Salvation Army was instrumental in organising the migration of some 200,000 men, women and children. Much of this movement occurred during Coombs' leadership there.
In 1911, Coombs stepped down from the Canadian Command. As the Army’s official history states "Commissioner Coombs, whose continued ill-health, it was stated, necessitated a lengthened furlough, was succeeded in January 1911 by David Rees". Later that year, Coombs resigned from the Army.
Three years later, Commissioner Rees, his wife, daughter and 164 other Salvationists, including many headquarters officers and the Territorial Staff Band, died when the Empress of Ireland went down in the Gulf of St Lawrence. They were part of the Canadian Contingent enroute to the 1914 Salvation Army International Congress in London.
