Edward J Saunders (1852 - 1923)

Born 1852 in Staffordshire

Died 1923 at about age 71 in Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Andrewartha [send private message]

Biography

Edward was born in 1852. He passed away in 1923.

• Lieutenant Colonel Saunders (c.1852 – 1923) was a pioneer of the Salvation Army movement in Australia. Born in Staffordshire in England, he trained as a stone mason and worked as a builder/architect. In 1880 Saunders and fellow immigrant, John Gore, formed a Salvation Army Corps in Adelaide. Gore assumed temporary leadership of the movement until the Salvation Army leader, General William Booth, sent officers from London in 1881.

Edward Saunders designed many early Salvation Army buildings in Australia and New Zealand. He became Property Secretary and was based at the territorial headquarters in Melbourne from 1889 until his retirement in 1912.

His six Wellington buildings were the Salvation Army barracks, citadel, girls’ home, rescue home, hall and the People’s Palace Hotel. Of these, only the last remains, albeit in an adapted and modified form.

THE SALVATION ARMY. (1897, August 19). ^[1]
Booth was accompanied on the platform by Brigadier Leigh, Major Saunders (architect and builder for the Salvation Army in Australasia) . . . .

THE SALVATION ARMY. (1923, August 14). ^[2]
Few people are aware of the name of the actual founder of the Salvation Army in Australia, but the death at his residence in Canterbury-road, Canterbury, of Mr. Edward Saunders, at the age of 72, has revived particulars of the advent of this large organization in Australia. . . . .

Sources

1. ↑ THE SALVATION ARMY. (1897, August 19). Kalgoorlie Western Argus
   \ (WA : 1896 - 1916), p. 26. Retrieved July 15, 2024
2. ↑ THE SALVATION ARMY. (1923, August 14). The Advertiser
   \ (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 16. Retrieved May 29, 2024

Edward Saunders designed many early Salvation Army buildings in Australia and New Zealand.