The War Cry (1879-present) is the main UK and Irish periodical of The Salvation Army, a worldwide Christian church and registered charity.
It was initially published as a weekly ½d broadsheet of 4 pages from 27 December 1879. It came out twice a week between September 1882 and February 1886, at which point it reverted to weekly publication but in a 16-page tabloid format priced at 1d. Its issues carried news from The Salvation Army in the UK and around the world, as well as poems, songs, fiction, real-life stories and advertisements for Salvation Army products.
The War Cry became heavily illustrated from the early 1880s onwards. The editor for the first few issues was George Scott Railton, but the first permanent editor was Major George Phippen Ewens who took over in January 1880 and wrote under the pseudonym ‘Grace Peace Evermore’.
Today, the War Cry is The Salvation Army’s principal evangelical newspaper and remains in publication as a weekly, now priced at 50p.
For this newspaper, we have the following titles in, or planned for, our digital archive:
- 1879–1910 The War Cry and Official Gazette of the Salvation Army.
- 1910–64 The War Cry and Official organ of the Salvation Army.
- 1965–85 The war cry.
