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The Army's work in France began on 13
March 1881 when Catherine Booth (eldest daughter of
William and Catherine Booth) conducted the first Meeting
in Paris. The purpose of this exercise is to concentrate
mainly on one significant part of the Army's work in the
capital city. However, this is not to say that until the
opening of Le Palais on 23 June 1926 the Army avoided the
criticism and hostility that it suffered in other lands,
in the early years of operation across the Channel. Whilst
such criticism and hostility is documented elsewhere,
contemporary postcards provide us with an insight as to
how the French regarded the Army's presence in their land.
The set of six postcards displayed on sheets 1 and 2 shows
the satirist in his element Of the six (and it is not
known if this is a complete set) the only one which might
be said to in any way resemble the truth, s the card which
shows the three ‘Salutistes’ selling En Avant.
Those last two words are put to really political use in
the card appearing on sheet 3 are (on a card obviously
dating from the Boer War era) General Sir Redvers Buller
is shown wearing the uniform of a lady Salvationist, with
his spurs and the end of his sword scabbard clearly
visible under the hem of the skirt. A (victorious?) Boer
is seen waving his gun and calling after the fleeing
Salvationist, General Buller - "En Avant"! On
the same sheet is a postcard with French text which has
also been seen printed in English and perhaps this
illustrates the universal aspect of the Army, in that
postcard manufacturers such as Raphael Tuck could, so
many, many years ago, distribute the basic card with just
a language change.
The reality of course was that tremendous and hard work
was done by the Army's pioneers and one particular family
stands out, that of Peyron. Sheet 4 holds a signed
postcard of Commissioner Albin Peyron (the first Frenchman
to achieve that rank) who was Territorial Commander at the
time of the inauguration of Le Palais. This sheet shows a
postcard of his youngest daughter, Jehanne. She married
Alexandre Matthyssens and the display continues with two
postcards of the Matthyssens family from New Year 1929/30
and Christmas 1930, the latter showing the couple and
their daughter skiing.
It is well documented elsewhere how the Army came to
acquire the building now known as Le Palais de la Femme.
Your attention is drawn to copies of two articles which
appeared in The War Cry issues dated 3 and 10 July
1926, and in the August 1926 issue of All the World.
The structure, built in 1910 had formerly been known as
Hotel Populaire - Hommes and a postcard of the main
entrance of the original building, which stands at the
junction of Rues de Charonne and Faidherbe in the 11th.
Arrondissement of Paris, is shown on sheet 5.
Sheet 6 contains an example of the (what we might now call
direct mailing?) card used to focus attention on the need
to provide and adapt the former building to the Army's
purposes. Also on this sheetpage vertical views of the
main entrance and a sepia horizontal view of the main
entrance. In the complete booklet of sixteen sepia cards
of Le Palais however, the view of the main entrance is
different. Sheet 7 contains four different postcard
(presumably sold by French Salvationists to raise funds)
emphasising the need for Le Palais. and the desperate
straits and degradation which might otherwise be suffered
by the women the Army was seeking to help. It is not known
if this is a complete set of these cards.
The complete booklet of postcards issued for Le Palais
contains 16 cards. The booklet shown has a light green
cover and the cards are perforated at the left. For ease
of reference, I have used contemporary English
descriptions and the numbering taken from the order in
which the postcards appear in this booklet, is entirely my
own, as the postcards themselves bear no numbers.
All the postcards are of a horizontal/landscape format,
apart from number 2 which is of vertical/portrait format.
Examples of single cards follow on sheets 8 to 11 in the
order they appear in the booklet. The postcards must also
have issued singly, because none of the single postcards
shown has a perforated edge and moreover, there is at
least one postcard on display, for the typewriting class,
that does not feature within the booklet just mentioned. I
think it must be accepted that there may also be other
different cards, as there are two different examples of
the Restaurant card.
Likewise it must follow that there was more than one
printing of the postcards, because card 13 (double
bedroom) certainly appears with two types of printing on
the address side. There is also a blue C B on the
postcard with the smaller printing, but it is not known if
this is original- or has been added since Sheet 12
contains three modern colour postcards, which are probably
known to most of you. The card, which is postally used,
describes the journey taken by the writer, on her way to
Le Palais.
At the time this paper was originally prepared in 2001 the
Army was operating 11 separate institutions in Paris.
Sadly, Le Palais was in need of urgent renovation and
modernisation and the Annual Reports for 1999 and 2000
made this clear. Since then however renovation has been
completed and the building was re-opened on 3/31arch 2003
although with provision for somewhat fewer occupants but
including provision for families.
Attempts to obtain a special postage stamp for the 75th
anniversary fell on deaf cars so far as the French Post
Office was concerned. The cost of a special ‘Obliteration
Temporaire’ was found to be quite ballistic, hence the
somewhat convoluted arrangements which were subsequently
made for the very few commemorative philatelic covers for
the 75th anniversary of the inauguration of Le Palais.
Also on display are extracts from Army newspapers and
journals. The black and white copies of an English version
of a multi-coloured publicity brochure for Le Palais were
very kindly made available by Corrie Krommenhoek. The
relevant pages of Flame of Fire, a short biography
of Commissioner Albin Peyron, describe the opening of Le
Palais. Penultimately, a. election of printed covers from
Le Palais is shown. The most recent addition is a book
published with the aid of Societe Generale last year.
In these ludicrously politically correct days, I attempt
to re-dress the balance by showing, on sheetP13,. a
postcard of the exterior of La Maison du jeune homme, also
in Arrondissement 11. It seems significant that the ladies
were housed in a Palais, with the gentlemen being
accommodated in a Maison! La Maison is now used as
Emergency Accommodation and is known as Residence
Catherine Booth.
The men of Paris however were provided with accommodation
of a very unusual variety. Le/La Louise-Catherine was
a barge floating on the Seine in Paris near to the Pont
d'Austerlitz. Conscious of the need for providing
accommodation for the homeless Paris man caused General
Bramwell Booth to seek to remedy this. Although the cost
was a great consideration, the barge was eventually
acquired by the Army and was (according to previous
information) towed to its mooring in Paris in 1930, prior
to ten months work in converting the vessel to a suitable
shelter. It is believed that this information is in fact
incorrect, as the card shown on sheetP13 indicates that
the vessel was in use by 1 January 1930 as shown on the
caption. Two other cards exist of the vessel, one of which
appears here only as a copy, provided from an original in
the ownership of another Army collector. Also displayed
are some photographs which may themselves have been issued
as postcards of Le/La Louise-Catherine, as well as
a pamphlet, various articles and reports relating
specifically to the vessel and in particular to the
Officer who commanded the barge,. Major Georgette Gogibus
O.F. That devoted Warrior's contribution has been well
documented elsewhere.
The barge originally provided accommodation for well in
excess of 150 men but by 1978 it was down to 100 and by
1993 to 92. At the time this paper was prepared (June
2003) the barge was not listed in the Army's Year Book.
Further research remains to be done regarding this aspect
of matters. From a philatelic viewpoint, it is not known
if there was any postal stationery exclusively for the use
of Le/La Louise-Catherine either for the Army's use
or for the use of those accommodated. Any information
concerning such postal stationery would be gladly welcomed
for future research purposes.
It was stated at the outset of this short talk that the
intention was to concentrate on Le Palais but, owing to
the fact that almost all these postcards came to me
through the kind assistance of ‘un ami francais’ who,
incidentally, I have never met face to face or even spoken
with, I thought it appropriate to include the other ‘cartes
salutistes’ that he has obtained for me. Sheets 14 and
15 contain various bands and family groups, although some
of these may actually be from French-speaking Switzerland.
On the last postcard page there is a very interesting card
of the American (?) Legion Parade of 1927 displaying a
very practical Army flag and finally, a postcard sized
photograph showing General Evangeline Booth, apparently in
the company of senior Officers, who are either holding or
wearing caps with the cap-band showing Armee du Salut, as
well as postcards from during and after the First World
War. It is hoped that the source of all of these postcards
will be able to obtain yet more cards in the future, now
that at least one French postcard dealer has been alerted
to my interest.
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