| While Women Weep - I'll Fight back to 'William Booth - Famous Words'
William Booth entering the Royal Albert Hall - 09 May 1912 to give his last public address - accompanied by Colonel Theo H Kitching.
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While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
From: BOOTH THE BELOVED, by J Evan Smith (Oxford University Press, 1949), pages 123-124
One of the most famous Salvation Army traditions is that William Booth concluded his last address in the Royal Albert Hall on 9 May 1912 with these words. It is certainly the kind of speech one would expect from a warrior General in these circumstances, but how did the tradition linking these words with this occasion develop?
The following quotation appeared in the magazine ALL THE WORLD, April 1906, p169, above a poem by Charles Coller, entitled "To the General":
"While women weep as they do now, I'll fight,. While little children go hungry as they do now, I'll fight,. while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight. " - THE GENERAL
The poem, with the same quotation, later appeared in OUR OWN RECITER, 1908, p168, and also in THE WAR CRY (London), 10 April 1909, p2, and THE WAR CRY (Australia), 16 April 1910, p2.
In his LIFE OF WILLIAM BOOTH, 1920, Vol.2, p473, Harold Begbie quotes the same words, together with two of William Booth's other well-known sayings:
Here, for us, ends the life of William Booth, and here, if we follow the best examples, the biographer should bring his narrative to a close. But in the story of so remarkable a man, in the story of so extraordinary and adventurous a career, it is impossible to make an end without some chronicle of the universal manifestations of affection and grief which paid homage to his death, "While women weep, as they do now," he had said, "I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight." And, "Go straight for souls, and go for the worst." And, "All who are not on the Rock are in the sea; every Soldier must go to their rescue. "
It is notable that, although Begbie had quoted extensively from William Booth's address in the Royal Albert Hall a few pages earlier [pp458-4601, he did not quote the extract from the "I'll fight" speech in this context.
None of the contemporary newspaper accounts of the meeting at the Royal Albert Hall made any reference to the famous words, "I'll fight", in their reports of William Booth's speech. The report in THE SOCIAL GAZETTE, 18 May 1912, p3, which quoted several "striking passages" from the speech, said that he concluded as follows:
Having acknowledged his indebtedness to the glorified Army Mother, to his devoted Officers and Soldiers, and to the many generous friends who had rallied to the help of the Movement, The General concluded by ascribing all the glory to God, and resumed his seat amid a fresh outburst of admiration and sympathy.
Several periodicals subsequently referred to William Booth's last speech, or quoted from his address, but did not say that he concluded with the words "I'll fight". A Supplement to THE WAR CRY, 24 August 1912, page iv, quoting from the General's "Noble Words of Farewell at the Royal Albert Hall" does not mention "I'll fight". An article in ALL THE WORLD, October 1912, p555, specifically says:
His last public words were, 'And now, comrades and friends, good-bye.'
This phrase is also used as the caption for an artist's impression of the scene in the Royal Albert Hall on another page of the same magazine, ALL THE WORLD, October 1912, p531, although it is clear from other reports that these were not actually his final words.
Looking at the extensive coverage of the event, immediately afterwards and in the next few years, all the other familiar sections of the address are quoted, including "I am going into dock for repairs", but the absence of early references to the "I'll fight" section of the speech is remarkable, if William Booth did say these words on that occasion.
The story moves on to 1927, when a song entitled "I'll fight", by Staff-Captain Fristrup, appeared in THE MUSICAL SALVATIONIST, September 1927, p97. Lieut-Colonel F G Hawkes, in his comments on the inside cover of this issue, said:
The song was inspired by one of the Founder's stirring declarations which fell from his lips in one of his fire baptized platform appeals: 'As long as women suffer as they do I will fight! As long as little children hungering go, as they now do, I will fight. As long as men go to the prisons, in and out, in and out, as they now do, I will fight. All who are not on the ship are in the sea. Every Soldier must do his utmost to save them.'
The source of the quotation is not indicated, though it has echoes of the various sayings quoted by Begbie. It is interesting to note that it is attributed to one of the Founder's platform appeals, not specifically to his last speech.
A few weeks later, at the time of the 'Great Salvation Siege' campaign, an article by an anonymous London Corps Sergeant-Major appeared in THE WAR CRY, 15 October 1927, p13, under the heading 'A Voice from the Celestial City'. The Corps Sergeant-Major, who had been a local officer for more than forty years, described a recent incident outside the Central Hall, Westminster, that brought back to his mind the sound of the Founder's voice:
Visions of his last great Meeting, held in the Royal Albert Hall, before, as he graphically described it, 'going into dry-dock for repairs,' appeared before me, and these were the words I heard as clearly as I had done in that spacious domed building fifteen years before:
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison in and out and in and out, I'll fight; while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, I'll fight; while there yet remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
As far as I can discover, this was the first time that the speech had been linked with the Royal Albert Hall meeting. This source also added the references to the 'poor lost girl upon the streets' and the 'dark soul without the light of God', who were not mentioned in the earlier versions of the speech.
Subsequently, other eyewitnesses came forward with their own recollections. Referring to his father's last speech in THESE FIFTY YEARS, 1929, p54, Bramwell Booth said:
The very last words of his last public address were, "While women weep as they do now, I will fight. "
Lieut-Commissioner J Evan Smith, who had been William Booth's secretary in 1912, wrote in reminiscences for Founders' Day in THE WAR CRY, 2 July 1938, p9:
A great Meeting was held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, when, at the conclusion of a lengthy address he said, 'Now I am going into dock for repairs,' and those of us who were present will never forget his striking peroration -
While women weep as they do now, I'll fight; While little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I'll fight; While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
The phrase about the drunkard was not in earlier versions of the speech. Lieut-Colonel Bernard Booth, the eldest grandson of William Booth, quotes a similar version of the speech in THE SALVATION ARMY YEAR BOOK, 1944, p5, in an article written for the centenary of his grandfather's conversion, the only differences, apart from punctuation, being the substitution of "I will fight" for "I'll fight" in each phrase. Some years later, Commissioner Catherine Bramwell-Booth, another eyewitness, quotes the same version as J Evan Smith in her interview with Ted Harrison, in COMMISSIONER CATHERINE, 1983, pp58-59.
A poem, "I'll fight to the end", by Mrs Commissioner Irena Arnold, with the subheading 'A Review of William Booth's Last Public Message', was included in her anthology MORE POEMS OF A SALVATIONIST, 1945, pp23-24, but may have appeared earlier in some other publication. The poem refers to the children who cry for bread, the women who weep, the lost girls, the men in prison, the drunkard and the dark soul, so (for comparison with other versions of the speech) it would be interesting to know when the poem was actually written.
In his book BOOTH THE BELOVED, 1949, pp122-124, J Evan Smith gives a more detailed description of the speech than he did in his earlier article:
Who of those present will ever forget the great meeting in the Royal Albert Hall on May 9, 1912, held to celebrate his eighty-third birthday, and the powerful address he delivered for fully an hour that evening, an address prepared during the two weeks prior to the event, with the utmost care and precision, every word of which, dictated to me, it was necessary for him, with my help, to memorize!
Though there were no amplifiers then, every one of the seven thousand people in the Royal Albert Hall heard his impassioned delivery. Here is a brief extract from his notes: -
"And now, comrades and friends, I must say good-bye. I am going into dry-dockfor repairs, but The Army will not be allowed to suffer, either financially or spiritually, or in any other way by my absence; and in the long future I think it will be seen - I shall not be here to see, but you will-that The Army will answer every doubt and banish every fear and strangle every slander, and by its marvellous success show to the world that it is the work of God and that the General has been His servant.
The peroration of that speech has now become widely known and will never be forgotten by those of us who were privileged to be present. It is typical of the spirit and purpose of the Salvation Army which he brought into being.
"While women weep, as they do now," he said, "I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end! "
This version of the speech was included in THE FOUNDER SPEAKS AGAIN, 1960, p171, a selection of the writings of William Booth, chosen and arranged by Cyril J Bames, and also in the SALVATIONIST RECITER, No.2, p9, published in 1967. It seems to have become the standard version of the text.
Prepared at the International Heritage Centre, by Gordon Taylor, 19 July 1996
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