unable to pray aloud. She was in deep sorrow over the death of her two
children. Later, when attending a holiness meeting, conducted in an old
wood shed in Bethnal Green, this woman, Mrs. Collingridge, yielded
herself entirely to God for His service. She knelt, a timid, broken
woman, making the sincere offering of herself to God, and rose from her
knees delivered from all fear and inspired with a message to the people.
From that day, with the arresting power of a prophetess, she proclaimed
the Saviour's love and power. She could command a crowd of the wildest
roughs in the open-air, or hold breathless a great theatre audience. She
specially excelled in visiting the converts and others; so blessed was
she in this work that Mr. Booth asked her to become the first paid woman
member of the Mission.

Commissioner Railton tells of Mrs. Collingridge in his 'Twenty-one Years
Salvation Army.' He writes, 'It was no longing for publicity or notoriety
that attracted her, for one hears not so much of her public work, blessed
and glorious as that was, as the victories she won from garret to garret,
from door to door, as she pressed on, resolved never, to the last hour,
to give up a victim of sin.' Worn out with loving and seeking souls,
this--after The Army Mother--the first woman officer of The Salvation
Army was promoted to glory, triumphing in God to her last breath. Mrs.
Collingridge was the forerunner of such spirits as Kate Lee. She raised
up and trained a band of brave women fighters; these women were used with
remarkable success in the growing Mission. William Booth was hard put to
find sufficient evangelists for the rapidly increasing stations about
London and in the Provinces. God had signally blessed the Women's Band as
visitors and exhorters, and William Booth saw in them qualities that
caused him to believe that, given opportuity, woman would excel as a
leader--a commander.