William Ridsdel

Originally a grocer's assistant, he later became a preacher for the Primitive Methodists in York in England but he was largely unmoved by that group.

Reading about the work of William Booth's The Christian Mission Ridsdel moved to London in 1873 and became an evangelist for that group.

[2] In 1878 he married Captain Mary Ann Davies (1849-1890), the first female Salvation Army Officer.

He was also at various times the head of The Salvation Army in South Africa (where he met President Paul Kruger in 1900),[4] Norway and the Netherlands.

A. M. Nicol in his biography of William Booth wrote of Ridsdel in 1906: "One of the few remaining members of the Christian Mission occupying a big position in the Salvation Army.

Twenty-five years ago Colonel Lawley heard him deliver a sermon from the text " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"