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Charles Jeffries
Commissioner Charles Henry Jeffries (1864 – 1 February 1936) was a British pioneer Salvationist and notable convert, after he left the Skeleton Army and attained the third highest rank possible as an Officer in The Salvation Army.
He was the grandfather of actor and director Lionel Jeffries.
Jeffries was born in Shadwell in London in 1864, the son of Emma (née Petty) (born 1838) and William Jeffries (1832–1870), a mariner, who married in 1859 at Christ Church in Tower Hamlets.
Employed by a firm of tobacconists, from 1881 the 16-year-old Charles Jeffries was the second-in-command of a Whitechapel branch of the Skeleton Army and was well known for disrupting Salvation Army public meetings and on occasion had assaulted Salvation Army Soldiers and Officers. The 'Skeleton Army' adopted the tunes of The Salvation Army, but altered their words, and wore cap bands on their hats reading 'Skeleton Army'.
'Skeletons' used banners with skulls and crossbones; sometimes there were two coffins and a statement like, “Blood and Thunder” (mocking the Salvation Army's war cry "Blood and Fire") or the three Bs: “Beef”, “Beer” and “Bacca” - again mocking the Salvation Army's three S's - "Soup", "Soap" and "Salvation". Banners also had pictures of monkeys, rats and the devil. They paraded the streets and conducted meetings loudly within earshot of those of the Salvationists, usually causing the Salvation Army's meetings to end in a riot.
Colonel George Holmes of The Salvation Army, who was a boy Salvationist in 1881, later recalled:
"It was very rough. I remember attending an Open-Air Meeting one Sunday night outside 'The Blind Beggar.' Afterwards we marched to our Hall in Whitechapel Road. The 'skeletons', directed by Jeffries, headed our procession, proceeding at a snail's pace and compelling us to do so. Thus handicapped, we were jostled and pelted with decayed fruit and mud. I was only a boy, and for safety was placed in the middle of the ranks.
An enthusiastic Salvationist in our front rank wore a high hat with a Salvation Army band round the crown. Slipping behind him, Jeffries leapt upon his shoulders and deftly pushed the high hat over his eyes, whilst wriggling into the desired position. Then, using the top hat as a drum and his legs as a goad, he 'drove' his victim in the procession to the Hall. The Salvationists could have dismounted Jeffries only by rolling their comrade in the mud."
Jeffries was proselytized with between 20 and 30 other 'Skeletons' at a meeting they had come to disrupt in Whitechapel; after his conversion he started to attend a Salvation Army corps, soon becoming an active Soldier. He and the other former 'Skeletons' quickly became the object of attack from their old colleagues. Jeffries wrote in his diary:
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Charles Jeffries
Commissioner Charles Henry Jeffries (1864 – 1 February 1936) was a British pioneer Salvationist and notable convert, after he left the Skeleton Army and attained the third highest rank possible as an Officer in The Salvation Army.
He was the grandfather of actor and director Lionel Jeffries.
Jeffries was born in Shadwell in London in 1864, the son of Emma (née Petty) (born 1838) and William Jeffries (1832–1870), a mariner, who married in 1859 at Christ Church in Tower Hamlets.
Employed by a firm of tobacconists, from 1881 the 16-year-old Charles Jeffries was the second-in-command of a Whitechapel branch of the Skeleton Army and was well known for disrupting Salvation Army public meetings and on occasion had assaulted Salvation Army Soldiers and Officers. The 'Skeleton Army' adopted the tunes of The Salvation Army, but altered their words, and wore cap bands on their hats reading 'Skeleton Army'.
'Skeletons' used banners with skulls and crossbones; sometimes there were two coffins and a statement like, “Blood and Thunder” (mocking the Salvation Army's war cry "Blood and Fire") or the three Bs: “Beef”, “Beer” and “Bacca” - again mocking the Salvation Army's three S's - "Soup", "Soap" and "Salvation". Banners also had pictures of monkeys, rats and the devil. They paraded the streets and conducted meetings loudly within earshot of those of the Salvationists, usually causing the Salvation Army's meetings to end in a riot.
Colonel George Holmes of The Salvation Army, who was a boy Salvationist in 1881, later recalled:
"It was very rough. I remember attending an Open-Air Meeting one Sunday night outside 'The Blind Beggar.' Afterwards we marched to our Hall in Whitechapel Road. The 'skeletons', directed by Jeffries, headed our procession, proceeding at a snail's pace and compelling us to do so. Thus handicapped, we were jostled and pelted with decayed fruit and mud. I was only a boy, and for safety was placed in the middle of the ranks.
An enthusiastic Salvationist in our front rank wore a high hat with a Salvation Army band round the crown. Slipping behind him, Jeffries leapt upon his shoulders and deftly pushed the high hat over his eyes, whilst wriggling into the desired position. Then, using the top hat as a drum and his legs as a goad, he 'drove' his victim in the procession to the Hall. The Salvationists could have dismounted Jeffries only by rolling their comrade in the mud."
Jeffries was proselytized with between 20 and 30 other 'Skeletons' at a meeting they had come to disrupt in Whitechapel; after his conversion he started to attend a Salvation Army corps, soon becoming an active Soldier. He and the other former 'Skeletons' quickly became the object of attack from their old colleagues. Jeffries wrote in his diary: