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Home League’s 100 Year History
The beginning of 1907 was marked by another new departure; “the formation of what, for the lack of a better name, Mrs Bramwell Booth describes as a Home League,” said All the World. Actually the name proved to be inspired, for it lives today, after more than sixty years, and the League itself is one of the most powerful influences for good the Army has produced. Its object was to combat the growing tendency to neglect the fostering of true home-life and to encourage thrift and hygiene. The commencement of the Home League was one result of the General’s motor campaigns. These gave him a close insight into the habits of the people, and he determined to do something to raise the standard of home-life. On Monday, 28 January 1907, Mrs Booth met wives and mothers in a special gathering at Cambridge Heath (London) to launch the new Home League movement. Mrs Colonel (later Mrs General) Higgins agreed to act as General Secretary, and several wives of staff officers were appointed secretaries of branches in the neighborhoods where they lived. Over 100 wives and mothers listened to an address by Mrs Booth when a branch of the Home League was formed at Tottenham Citadel on Monday, 11 February 1907.
According to a report in The War Cry, 25 January 1908 (p12), a branch of the Home League was inaugurated at Leytonstone in September 1907 under the care of Mrs Higgins. Other early branches were started at Clapton, Newington Green, Homerton, Bethnal Green, Ilford and Barking. Mrs Commissioner William Eadie, wife of the Chief Secretary, was the National Secretary of Home Leagues in 1910. The first Home League Secretary at Ilford was Mrs Lieutenant- Colonel Hilda Jackson, who was promoted to Glory from Bournemouth in 1968.
The Home League meets every Tuesday morning from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. |
