THE INTRIGUING  STORY OF THE ZULU QUEEN

This week we tell the little known story of Marianne Pawson who became known as The Zulu Queen – one of the Salvation Army’s greatest figures.

It was on the suggestion of General Booth in 1879 that Marianne Faulconbridge made the long journey from Sunderland to Salisbury, accompanied by her assistant, Miss Miller.

They held their meetings every evening in the Market Square and many people gathered to hear them speak. Often the crowds were actively hostile, and during the dark evenings the rioting became dangerous. Marianne received a cruel blow from a knobbed stick on her shoulder but such was her courage and fortitude that she carried on with the meeting in spite of her pain.

Among her firm friends in Salisbury, Marianne counted the well-known Fry family who were instrumental in forming the first Salvation Army band.

Owing to the disturbances caused by their meetings the police superintendent forbade the Salvationists to stand and speak in the streets, but Marianne was quick witted; she instructed her speakers to walk very slowly as they preached, and set the example by doing it herself. Persistently refusing to be crushed in any way they were referred to as “stubborn as Zulus,” since the Zulu War was receiving prominence in the daily press at that time, and in Salisbury Police Court an irate farmer pointing to Marianne shouted “and there stands the Queen of the Zulus” –  a title which she never lost.

Preceded wherever she went by the intriguing title she had gained at Salisbury, Marianne visited many towns in the Midlands and North Country. Such a fearless and striking looking woman with a powerful personality could hardly have been without her suitors and it was at Stockport that she met Staff-Captain Pawson. They were married on October 1^st, 1888.

She died in 1943 aged 83 years.