Edward J Saunders

Lieutenant Colonel Saunders (c.1852 – 1923) was a pioneer of the Salvation Army movement in Australia. Born in Staffordshire in England, he trained as a stone mason and worked as a builder/architect. In 1880 Saunders and fellow immigrant, John Gore, formed a Salvation Army Corps in Adelaide. Gore assumed temporary leadership of the movement until the Salvation Army leader, General William Booth, sent officers from London in 1881.

Edward Saunders designed many early Salvation Army buildings in Australia and New Zealand. He became Property Secretary and was based at the territorial headquarters in Melbourne from 1889 until his retirement in 1912.

His six Wellington buildings were the Salvation Army barracks, citadel, girls’ home, rescue home, hall and the People’s Palace Hotel. Of these, only the last remains, albeit in an adapted and modified form.

Image: Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory website accessed October 2016 http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/en/Who-We-Are/History-and-heritage/1880---1900/ 

Sources:
Goad, Philip & Julie Wills, “The Encyclopaedia of Australian Architecture” (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Mew, Geoff & Adrian Humphris. “Raupo to Deco: Wellington Styles and Architects 1840 – 1940” (Wellington: Steel Roberts Aotearoa, 2014) 

“Salvation Army Barracks (former)” Heritage New Zealand List Report, accessed online 07 August 2015 http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/7740