50 free Salvation Army trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Salvation Army trivia quiz covers the church and charity that began as a mission in London's East End in 1865 and now runs shelters, thrift stores and disaster relief in more than 130 countries. The easier questions cover what most people know: the founder William Booth, the military ranks, the Christmas bell-ringers and their red kettles, the brass bands and the musical in which a mission sergeant falls for a gambler. The harder end goes into the details: how a slip of the pen turned a 'volunteer army' into a salvation army, the Skeleton Army mobs paid by publicans to break up meetings, the sailor turned officer who borrowed Liverpool's 'Simpson's Pot' idea for a crab pot at a San Francisco ferry landing, the women who fried doughnuts in soldiers' helmets in 1917, Booth's book In Darkest England, the family feud that produced Volunteers of America, the High Council that deposed Bramwell Booth in 1929, the first woman General, and the McDonald's heiress whose $1.6 billion bequest built the Kroc Centers. There are also questions on the flag, the motto and the sacraments the Army does not observe. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the organisation, the Booth family and the events involved before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Christianity, Victorian Britain, charities and Christmas quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which couple founded the Salvation Army?
William and Catherine Booth
William became the first leader; Catherine was known as the 'Mother of The Salvation Army'.
Q 02The Salvation Army's theology derives from which Christian tradition?
Methodism
Unusually among Methodist bodies, it does not observe sacraments such as baptism or Holy Communion.
Q 03Before founding the mission, William Booth had been apprenticed at 13 to what trade?
Pawnbroker
His father in Nottingham could no longer afford school fees; Booth later found pawnbroking work in London too.
Q 04By Army tradition, Bramwell Booth objected in 1878 to which word his father used for the movement?
Volunteer
'I'm no volunteer, I'm a regular!' he said, and secretary George Scott Railton was told to substitute 'salvation'.
Q 05William Booth summed up the Army's approach to the 'down and outs' with which three S's?
Soup, soap and salvation
Opponents in the Skeleton Army mocked them with three B's: beef, beer and 'bacca'.
Q 06What is the Salvation Army's motto, or 'war cry'?
Blood and Fire
On the flag, red stands for the blood of Christ and blue for purity and God.
Q 07On the Salvation Army flag, what does the yellow represent?
The fire of the Holy Spirit
Red is the blood of Jesus and blue stands for purity and God.
Q 08What is the title of the Salvation Army's international leader?
General
Officer ranks run from lieutenant and captain through major, colonel and commissioner.
Q 09Salvationists must abstain from alcohol, illegal drugs, gambling and what else?
Smoking
Their opposition to drink made enemies of pub landlords, who bankrolled the mobs that attacked early meetings.
Q 10Which two sacraments does the Salvation Army not celebrate?
Baptism and Holy Communion
The Booths believed many Christians relied on outward signs of grace rather than grace itself; members may take Communion in other churches.
Q 11The Salvation Army's Foundation Deed stated that women had the same right as men to do what?
Preach
Catherine Booth's 1859 pamphlet Female Ministry had defended a woman's right to preach the gospel.
Q 12The Salvation Army's newspaper, first printed in London in December 1879, is called what?
The War Cry
National editions are still sold worldwide to fund social work; the first US edition came out in St. Louis in 1881.
Q 13Salvation Army thrift shops are nicknamed the 'Sally Ann' in North America and what in Australia?
Salvos Stores
'Sally Army' is the UK nickname and 'Sally's' is used in New Zealand.
Q 21Where did George Scott Railton and his team hold their first American meeting in March 1880?
A variety theatre in New York
Harry Hill's Variety Theatre hosted them; Salvationist emigrants had already started work on their own.
Q 22The Christmas red kettle tradition began in the 1890s in which city?
San Francisco
Captain Joseph McFee wanted to fund a free Christmas dinner and remembered a donation pot he had seen in Liverpool.
Q 23What did Captain McFee actually place at the Oakland ferry landing to collect donations?
A crab pot on a tripod
Q 14What was the Skeleton Army?
Mobs that violently disrupted Salvationist meetings
Largely funded by pub owners, they threw rocks, bones, rats and tar and marched under skull-and-crossbones banners.
Q 15The Skeleton Army mocked the Salvationists' war cry with which slogan?
Blood and Thunder
Contemporary press reports place its first appearance in Exeter in October 1881, though the Army said Weston-super-Mare.
Q 16The 1882 case Beatty v Gillbanks, arising from Salvation Army marches, established what?
Lawful marchers are not liable for riots others start
Three Salvationists had been jailed for three months for breaking a local ban on processions.
Q 17The Salvation Army's brass-band tradition began in 1878 with which family?
The Frys
Charles Fry and his three sons from Wiltshire formed a quartet, gave up their business and joined full time.
Q 18The Army's flagship ensemble, the International Staff Band, was established in which year?
1891
The first corps band had formed in Consett, County Durham, in December 1879.
Q 19Who suggested at the 1878 'War Congress' that Salvationists should wear a uniform?
Elijah Cadman
He wanted 'a suit of clothes that would let everyone know I meant war to the teeth and salvation for the world'.
Q 20The Army's organised social work in Australia began in December 1883 with the opening of what?
A home for ex-convicts
Salvationist emigrants had already begun work there before the first official officers arrived in 1880.
His cry of 'Keep the Pot Boiling!' drew in ferry passengers.
Q 24Roughly how many bell-ringers staff red kettles in the US in the weeks before Christmas?
Over 25,000
In some places, gold coins, rings or bundles of large bills are anonymously dropped into the kettles.
Q 25What did Salvation Army 'Doughnut Lassies' famously fry doughnuts in during World War I?
Soldiers' helmets
More than 250 volunteers went to soldiers' camps in France in 1917 and are credited with popularising doughnuts in America.
Q 26National Doughnut Day, honouring those wartime volunteers, began in 1938 in which city?
Chicago
It falls on the first Friday of June and started as a Depression-era fundraiser.
Q 27William Booth's 1890 book on poverty took its title from which explorer's account of Africa?
Henry Morton Stanley
In Darkest England and the Way Out echoed Stanley's In Darkest Africa and proposed farm colonies and job schemes.
Q 28In the early 1890s Booth set up a farm colony to draw people out of the East End slums. Where?
Hadleigh, Essex
The colony was one plank of the plan set out in In Darkest England.
Q 29The Army's 1885 campaign against child prostitution helped pass which law?
The Criminal Law Amendment Act
A group of uniformed Salvationists laid the petition on the floor of the House of Commons.
Q 30How many children did the Booths have?
Eight
Several became senior officers, including Bramwell, Ballington and Evangeline.