Social Reformer. Founder of Volunteers of America. Born Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth in Limpsfield, Surrey, England, she was the daughter of an Anglican priest. The early Salvation Army meetings, known then as the Christian Mission, were held in the courtyard of her father’s church, and it was here that she met her future husband, Ballington Booth. She joined the Salvation Army in 1882 and worked with Captain Catherine Booth. They were sent to Paris with two other girls to share the Salvation Army’s message, but were not well received. When they were arrested and expelled from the country, her father was unhappy with the news coverage and demanded she leave the Salvation Army. He refused to give his consent for her to marry Ballington, so they waited until she became of legal age to marry and she continued her mission work. She organized a group of women known as the “slum sisters” to care for the elderly, the sick and anyone in need. They did not wear uniforms and were not Salvation Army members. After she turned 21 in 1887, she wed her fiancé and legally changed her name to Maud Ballington Booth. Shortly after, they were sent to New York to manage the United States division. To counter anti-British sentiment, they became American citizens and flew the American flag at every Salvation Army post. She continued the work she started in England and started an American division of the “slum sisters.” After Salvation Army General William Booth visited in 1894 and ordered them back to England, they chose to leave the Salvation Army and remain in their adopted country. In March of 1896, they drew up a charter for a new organization, the Volunteers of America. Due to her influence, an article was included in the constitution that men and women volunteers were to be treated equally. She was ordained as a minister in 1897 at Carnegie Hall in front of 5,000 volunteers. She began a prison ministry, beginning with a service at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York in 1896. She started a correspondence with prisoners there, answering each letter personally, and established the first Volunteer Prison League. Other Volunteer Prison League chapters followed at Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York; Charlestown State Prison in Charlestown, Massachusetts; and Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Donations from these chapters were used to start Hope Hall, a home for newly released prisoners. She also provided food, clothing and shelter for the families of the inmates, made sure each child received a Christmas gift, and new shoes and clothing for school. In the mid-1930s, as her husband’s health deteriorated, she took on more and more of his duties; and when he died in 1940, she succeeded him as General of the Volunteers of America.