page_title: George Scott Railton
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: George Scott Railton / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: St. John's Methodist Church, Arbroath Wikidata has entry Q7588791 with data related to this item. This is a photo of listed building number 21147.
context_page_description: George Scott Railton was a Scottish-born Christian missioner who was the first Commissioner of The Salvation Army and second in command to its founder, General William Booth.
context_section_description: Born in the manse of St. John's Methodist Church at Arbroath in Scotland, he was the son of Methodist missionaries Lancelot Railton and his wife, Margaret Scott. Railton was educated at Woodhouse Grove School in Leeds, which was established to provide an education for the sons of itinerant ministers of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. His father and mother both died on 8 November 1864 at Peel, Isle of Man, probably of cholera.
  The death of his parents left the 15-year-old Railton homeless and unemployed. His older brother, the Rev. Launcelot Railton, a Methodist minister, found him work in London with a shipping company, but not finding it to his liking Railton decided to go to Morocco in 1869 as a Christian missionary. However, this being unsuccessful and finding himself stranded in Morocco, he had to work his passage back to Britain as a steward. In 1870 he began to work in Stockton-on-Tees for an uncle who owned a shipping business, but preached the Gospel at every available opportunity. In the same year William Booth went to Matlock to recuperate and where he met the Rev. Launcelot Railton, who told Booth of his younger brother George's attempt to convert the Moroccans, adding that George was just the sort of person that Booth's Christian Mission was looking for.
  Two years later, in 1872, Booth received a letter from George Scott Railton, who had read a copy of The Christian Mission's second report, 'How to Reach the Masses with the Gospel', and had been so moved by it that he offered himself to the cause.
caption: A blue plaque marks his birthplace in Arbroath
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