3rd October 2021
Last weekend I spent most of Saturday at Torquay museum and enjoyed some very interesting lectures about the local history of Torbay. The first lecture was given by Dr James Kneale, associate professor UCL, which was about the Salvation Army being persecuted by the local authorities in Torquay in 1888.
One of the other lectures was given by the local historian Kevin Dixon who has an article about the Salvation Army's problems in late Victorian Torquay on this website:-
https://wearesouthdevon.com/the-torquay-war-of-1888/
Last Sunday I decided to write a song about this. Here are the lyrics:-
They kept on Marching
The Salvation Army was marching in Torquay
With the sound of a trumpet and a joyful tambourine
Sustaining their challenge to authority
This confrontation caused such a public scene
They'd marched through the town
Unmolested for six years
Saving many souls
Like God's new pioneers
The Salvation Army was marching in Torquay
With the sound of a trumpet and a joyful tambourine
Sustaining their challenge to authority
This confrontation caused such a public scene
The local board passed
A new harbourside Act
In the thirty eighth clause
Was a little known fact
No procession was allowed
On any Sunday
Except of the military
So the Act did say
To the Salvation Army many fines were handed out
Prison sentences served of that there is no doubt
The Salvation Army kept on marching in Torquay
With the sound of a trumpet and a joyful tambourine
Sustaining their challenge to authority
This confrontation caused such a public scene