Albert Orsborn

Albert William Thomas Orsborn was born on September 4th 1886, at Maidstone, Kent, the son of Salvation Army Officers. His school years were difficult, mainly brought about through having to change schools ten times when his parents were posted to different Corps. His final schooling was in Manchester, where, at the age of thirteen, he passed what was then known as a ‘Labour Examination’. This enabled him to get a job sweeping floors and washing bottles in a chemist shop for the grand sum of six shillings and sixpence a week. This meagre wage however, was a very welcome addition to the family income which was often stretched to breaking point.

In 1899 Albert’s parents were posted to London and he obtained a job as an office boy in the Chief Secretary’s department at International Headquarters. Albert Orsborn first sought Salvation at Walthamstow Corps in East London, but it was at a youth camp at Hadleigh with General Bramwell Booth, that he committed himself to full-time service for the Lord. In 1905, when his parents were serving as Corps Officers at Clapton Congress Hall, he offered himself up for Officership, and, with his good friend Harry Bramwell Howard, son of Commissioner and Mrs T. Henry Howard, entered training.

On completion of his nine months training Albert Orsborn received his Commission and served as Corps Officer throughout the British Territory. During one such appointment, in 1909, at Lowestoft, he learned that his long time friend, Captain Harry Bramwell Howard, who had been posted to India, had been promoted to Glory as a result of contracting cholera.

After spending some time in divisional work, Albert was appointed Chief Side-Officer at the International Training College in 1925. A position he held for the next eight years. In 1933 he was posted to New Zealand to fill the post of Chief Secretary. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1936, he served as Territorial Commander of Scotland and Ireland before being appointed British Commissioner in 1940. Whilst serving in that position he was awarded the C.B.E. in 1943, receiving the award from King George VI.

On May 9th 1946 the fourth High Council elected Commissioner Orsborn as General of The Salvation Army, and on June 21st he took command as The Army’s sixth international leader. During his term of office, General Orsborn met many world leaders, including India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru; U.S. President, Harry S. Truman; and Indonesian President, Dr. Sukarno. In January 1947 he received a Royal summons to Buckingham Palace for an audience with King George VI who was a keen supporter of the work of The Salvation Army. On November 20th 1947 he attended the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at Westminster Abby, and in 1953 attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1948 General Orsborn undertook a long tour of India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Singapore and witnessed at first hand the ravages caused by the war between India and Pakistan. The tour continued to Australia where the General travelled long distances to visit many Army centres. In the first three years of his Generalship he travelled over 120,000 miles by transport varying as widely as bullock-cart to aeroplanes, and in that time Salvation Army work commenced in Haïti.

However, there were grievous losses during and after the war. By Government decree work was stopped in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Latvia and Estonia. War broke out in Korea and Salvationists were executed. The General’s protests at this ill-treatment were ignored by the different Governments.

Albert Orsborn was the first S.A. General to give a world radio broadcast, and also the first to be seen on television. He was an able and talented poet, writing many inspirational verses. As a young Officer he had been assisted with his writing by Commissioner Booth-Tucker, although he was rebuked by Commissioner T. Henry Howard, for ‘trying to be clever’ in verse and in rhyme. The adventurous have always been held back by those less so!

Much of Orsborn’s work has been published; the first to be published in 1947, was a collection of verses ‘The Beauty of Jesus’. During the Great War the Bishop of Salisbury had the then Captain Orsborn’s songs printed for distribution to the troops.

Upon retirement from active service in 1954, General Orsborn went to live in Bournemouth, where he continued his soldiership at Boscombe Citadel. In 1958 he introduced the now renowned Boscombe Easter Convention.

General Albert Orsborn was promoted to Glory on February 4th 1967. On November 24th 1984 the new buildings of Boscombe Corps were officially opened as ‘The Orsborn Memorial Halls’, by Commissioner Howard Orsborn, son of the late General.