A vintage photograph featuring Salvation Army General Bramwell Booth and some of the 'ninety boys who are sailing for Australia under the Salvation Army Immigration Scheme'
An original vintage gelatin silver press photograph (120 × 166 mm), stamped 'Sport & General | Press Agency ...' on the verso; a lengthy duplicate typescript caption on thin paper is also mounted there.
Light wear and creases to the corners (with only one crease impinging on the image proper); in excellent condition.
'After the war and during the 1920s, the Salvation Army directed migrants to Australia. By this stage its efforts were directed to assisting families and settling farm boys, especially in Queensland. The Army worked closely with the Royal Colonial Institute and the Oversea Settlement Department within the Dominions Office. In Queensland, it established the special training camp at Riverview near Brisbane to give the farm boys some prior training. After-care was thorough and effective. The peak came in the late 1920s when on four separate occasions, the Salvation Army chartered the vessel "Vedic" to transport its emigrants from Britain to Australia' (National Archives of Australia). One of the lads in this photograph is holding aloft a large sign-written placard: 'Salvation Army Party | Boy Farmers | for | Australia | TSS "Vedic" | 31st October 1925'. On that occasion, HRH Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (also present in the photograph) gave a speech.
Item #118537
Sold