Mrs. Booth's Most Unusual Enquiry Bureau

By Sheilla Jones and Jim Burns

Ripperologist, Issue 167, June 2020, pp 22-26

  Mrs. Booth’s Enquiry Bureau was a most unusual detective agency, born out of the desperate search for girls seduced or forced into prostitution in London slums, and grew to become arguably the largest detective agency in Victorian London.

  The Salvation Army's attempt to address the number of girls "lost through the portals fo the abominable trade of prostitution" began with... Read more...

Mrs. Booth’s Enquiry Bureau:

Salvation Army’s detective agency goes international

By Sheilla Jones and Jim Burns

The Salvation Army, New Zealand, Figi, Tonga and Samoa

Reprinted by permission January 2019

  The tales of the Victorian-era detectives of Scotland Yard in England and the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency in the United States of America continue to entertain us today. But few people are familiar with a detective agency of that same era that boasted a network of connections beyond those of Scotland Yard and Pinkerton’s combined. Read more...



Ripperologist, Issue 167, June 2020

Mrs. Booth's Most Unusual EnquiryBureau,         pp 22-26

Florence Soper Booth married into the Salvation Army Booth family in 1882 and, at age 22, was promptly assigned to develop and manage the Women’s Social Work branch of the Army. That included the creation of the Enquiry Bureau in 1885, which became a professional detective agency in 1888