Sunday, August 10, 2008

London - Monday & Tuesday

On Monday, I revisited the Penge Corps where the corps officers made a wonderful presentation to me about the history of the corps, and they made available to me the historical records of the corps. While many of them date back to the early 1900s, none go back quite far enough to reveal any specific information about Emma and Violet Henderson.


I did scan some wonderful period photographs of the corps and of the Penge area from that era. Penge was the location of the massive Crystal Palace and it dominated the landscape in that era. It burned in 1936; however, there are many references to it throughout the neighborhood.


Penge Corps - late 1800s



Penge Corps Women - Late 1800s


Penge, The Crystal Palace in background. Circa early 1900s.

On Tuesday, I visited the Army's Internation Heritage Center located on the campus of the William Booth College for Officers Training in south London. I had previously corresponded with Gordon Taylor, the director of the center. The college campus is absolutely breathtaking and awe-inspiring.












William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army


Gordon is also a noted Salvation Army music archivist. For those not familiar with the Army, the role of music and the history of their music is very important to the entire organization. He of course was very knowledgable of my grandfather, Sidney Cox and had pulled out several files for me to review. I fired up my scanner and went after it for a good little while. In the process, I found many new articles, correspondence, pictures, etc that I had never seen before. I have previously traveled to the Army's historical centers in Atlanta, Chicago and Toronto and have amassed a fairly impressive collection of archived material to compile my own personal library of Sidney Cox - his music and his life. I look forward to sharing this with the rest of the family.


Click on image to enlarge.
The first page of a two-page article
from the Swedish edition of The War
Cry on the occasion of the death of
Sidney Cox.

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