HUNDREDS SAIL ON OLYMPIC
Several hundred members of the Salvation Army, under the command of Miss Eva Booth, on Saturday, May 30th, sailed from New York on the Olympic for their International Congress in London, mourning the fate of the fellow-workers of Canada who were lost in the Empress of Ireland wreck and in full realization that they themselves had barely missed sharing that fate. Miss Booth said:
“We all came within an ace of sailing on board the Empress of Ireland. They offered us special rates and we thought it would be a good thing to go with our Canadian leaders. It was just by chance that we happened to change our minds, and take passage on the Olympic instead. The terrible disaster, in which it is reported so few of our Salvation Army comrades survived, cannot fail to make us sorrowful and very serious as we sail this morning.”
LOSS TO ARMY IN CANADA
Commander Booth said that the loss of Commissioner Rees left the Army in Canada without a head, and added that most of those who had perished belonged to the preaching staff.
Brief mention of some of the officers lost in the wreck follows:
Commissioner Rees came out from Reading in 1882, and in 1911 was put in charge of the work of the Salvation Army in Canada. He had been principal of the International Training College, London, field secretary of the United Kingdom and territorial commissioner for South Africa and Sweden. In 1885 he married Captain Ruth Babington.
Colonel Sydney Maidment, chief secretary for Canada, had been stationed in Toronto since 1912. In 1887 he graduated from Pokesdown and was appointed as an officer. He had seen service in Denmark, Finland, South Africa, South America, Norway and the West Indies. He married Captain Peckham in 1882.
Brigadier Potter was born in Scotland and had seen service in Great Britain, Japan, United States and Canada, respectively. He had been in Toronto since 1906 as financial secretary.