Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

Arthur Sydney Booth-Clibborn (''né'' Clibborn) (1855 – 20 February 1939) was a pioneering

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. He was the husband of Kate Booth, the oldest daughter of

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Catherine Booth.

Early life

Clibborn was born in Moate, County Westmeath in Ireland, the son of a linen mill owner. At age 13 he was sent to boarding school in France and Switzerland. He graduated from the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

. During this time abroad, he developed his capacity for languages. At age 26 he was appointed a Quaker minister.Malcomson, Keith ''Pentecostal Pioneers Remembered''
Xulon Press (2008) p. 139 ''

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Salvation Army career

Joining

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

in 1881 at the invitation of

William Booth William Booth (10 April 1829 – 20 August 1912) was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first General (1878–1912). This Christian movement, founded in 1865, has a qu ...

, Major Clibborn became Kate Booth’s chief of staff during her mission in France. They married on 18 February 1887. On marriage, Arthur and Kate changed their surname by deed poll to Booth-Clibborn at the insistence of General Booth. They had ten children, including the

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

preacher William Emmanuel Booth-Clibborn. A grandson was Stanley Eric Francis Booth-Clibborn, who became the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Bishop of Manchester The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.) The current bishop is David Walker (Bishop of Manchester), David Walker who w ...

. The Booth-Clibborns were posted by The Salvation Army to Switzerland in 1889. However, opposition to their movement eventually led to the Swiss government's order that all Salvation Army halls be closed, and Arthur Booth-Clibborn was imprisoned for a time. Following the birth of their tenth child the Booth-Clibborns resigned from

in January 1902, unhappy at the restrictive nature of the Army's military style of government. A commission of enquiry had already decided to dismiss him from officership.

Post-Salvation Army

At her husband's wish, Kate and the children travelled with him to the religious leader

John Alexander Dowie John Alexander Dowie (25 May 18479 March 1907) was a Scottish-Australian minister known as a Christian evangelist and faith healer. He began his career as a Christian minister in South Australia. He formed what became known as the " Pentec ...

's Zion City, a township about 40 miles north of Chicago. Kate Booth-Clibborn did not believe Dowie's grandiose claims – in 1901 he declared himself the prophet Elijah the Restorer, and in 1904 the first apostle of Jesus Christ – and she was offended by his criticism of her father even though her resignation had made her an outcast from both her family and The Salvation Army. For the rest of her life Kate Booth-Clibborn had almost no contact with her father or with those siblings who remained in The Salvation Army.L. E. Lauer, ‘Clibborn, Catherine Booth- (1858–1955)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 200
accessed 26 May 2010
/ref> After converting to

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

in 1906 the Booth-Clibborns together continued preaching and spreading the Gospel as travelling evangelists in Europe, the United States, and Australia for the rest of their lives. Catherine Booth-Clibborn on ''The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre'' websiteMissionary Sheet
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clibborn, Arthur 1855 births 1939 deaths Salvation Army officers Commissioners in The Salvation Army Zionism in the United States Irish Quakers Irish Salvationists Irish Pentecostals Evangelists Family of William Booth