So said William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in 1908. He proved that he meant what he said when he placed Brigadier Mary Murray in charge of the Salvation Army's "Naval and Military League" at the time of the Great War. She, together with Staff Captain John Aspinall and Ensign May Whittaker went to Belgium and France in 1914 to see what help could be given to the men of the British Expeditionary force. The result of this was a service which eventually provided forty camp centres near the war zones, and later a war graves visitation service for bereaved relatives, initially under the direction of another woman officer, Adjutant Mary Booth.

Not only were these services organized by women officers, but also many of their volunteer war workers were young working class women. My aunt, Ada Le Poidevin was a typical example. Her family were ardent Salvationists, and she was one of the third generation of the family to attend St Sampson's Corps, where her father was a bandsman for over 50 years . Ada was born in Guernsey on February 5th 1895, the second daughter of John Wesley Le Poidevin, a charrotier in a local quarry, and his wife Alice, née Roberts, a midwife. She attended school until the age of about 12 before going into domestic service with her sister, Alice, in the household of a local doctor. A brother, John Wesley Robert Le Poidevin was born in 1910, when their parents were in their forties.