1859–1922

Introduction

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Born: De­cem­ber 31, 1859, Foul­den, Nor­folk, Eng­land.

Died: Sep­tem­ber 9, 1922, Wat­ford, Hert­for­dshire, Eng­land. At his me­mo­ri­al ser­vice, Sal­va­tion Ar­my Ge­ne­ral Bram­well Booth said, He sang his way through this life and he will sing his way through Eter­ni­ty.

Buried: Ab­ney Park Ce­me­te­ry, Stoke New­ing­ton, Lon­don, Eng­land.

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Biography

John was the son of farm work­er John Law­ley and Anne Feeth­am, and hus­band of Har­ri­et Char­ter­is.

He worked on farms un­til his fa­mi­ly moved to Brad­ford, where he be­came an en­gine-lad.

He came to Christ at a meet­ing in Pull­an’s The­ater in Brad­ford, and a few months lat­er be­came an ev­an­gel­ist for Chris­tian Miss­ions (the early name of the Salvation Army). He wrote his first Gos­pel song in 1878 while serv­ing at Jar­row-on-Tyne.

He went on to work at Sal­va­tion Ar­my (SA) corps and di­vi­sions. He was an aide-de-camp to SA found­er Will­iam Booth (1890–1912) and to SA Ge­ne­ral Bram­well Booth (1912–21).

Sources

Lyrics