Forbes was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1891 and full R.A in 1910. During the early 1900s he became a prolific painter of works based on sea and harbour subjects.
The painting appeared in the Art Journal 1892 (page 69) and the Art Journals 1904 (rear page 18). Completed and exhibited in the spring of 1891, "Salvation Army' reflects Forbes's fascination with the colour and spectacle of local ceremonies, customs and social gatherings (seen in such works as The Health of the Bride, Christmas Eve, Evening in the Village and Gala Day at Newlyn).
Forbes first became interested in the fervent activities of the Salvation Army when he attended one of their meetings early in 1884. In a letter to his mother he wrote of what they called a 'free and easy' going on. 'I love Jesus was being sung to a music hall tune'. Penzance became one of the main spheres of activity and its founder, General Booth, visited the town twice in the 1880s. Salvationists were scorned and members were attacked and when a group met together large crowds would immediately gather to watch. Responding with enthusiasm to the emotional appeal of non-conformist religion following the late 19th century revival which had spread throughout Cornwall, Newlyners are portrayed delighting in the performance of the lively band accompanying a briskly chanted hymn. Curious children dressed in their Sunday best, lounging fisher lads and a passing carter create a delightful picture as they stand on a familiar beach by the North Pier, with brown sails spread to dry on idle boats.Typically Forbes used local authentic models. The songsters and the band are members of the Newlyn branch of the Army. The sturdy central figure in the dark red jersey is a newly converted local quarryman. The large dark and sombre tones of the uniforms are contrasted with the white Sunday best pinafores and coloured dresses of the children. The natural gestures of the bystanders and children in the foreground contrast with the intensity of the Salvationists. The figures are simply conceived and strongly drawn. In the young boy to the right there is a natural grace showing a quality so typical of the children portrayed in Elizabeth Forbes's work. The little port makes a delicate group of shapes and lines to the horizon under the calm surface of the bay (Artists Journal).
Newlyn's North Pier was built in 1888. Although Stanhope readily acknowledged the practical difficulties of carrying a 7 foot canvas around the village, he painted much of the outline and setting of the picture at the location 'en plein air'. An article about Forbes in The Cornishman on 9th November 1911 includes a reference to a paragraph which first appeared in the Art Journals of 1904: "Grit and determination to overcome difficulties were certainly needed to carry through, in the open air, on the busy Newlyn beach, such as a picture 'Soldiers and Sailors'. This was done.”
A photographic image of him working on the canvas surrounded by numerous studies he had completed, suggest that a considerable amount of work was undertaken in the relative calm and shelter of his studio.
In its year of completion, 1891, the painting was sold to the renowned art collector, George McCulloch, for £900 (£120,000 equivalent to today's terms with average inflation of 3.4 %). Following McCulloch’s death in 1907 ownership passed to his wife, who remarried in 1908 and became Mrs Coutts Michie. It was exhibited, along with the rest of McCulloch’s collection, in the RA's winter exhibition of 1909. In 1913 it was sold, along with the bulk of the McCulloch Art Collection, as 'Soldiers and Sailors; Salvation Army Holding a Service in a Fishing Village’ by Christie's to a Mr. Cassell. We know the purchaser’s name from an annotated copy of the sales catalogue held by the National Library of Australia. This copy was likely annotated by the art dealer David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), who acted as McCulloch’s agent in the formation of his collection. According to Croal Thompson’s notes, ‘Cassell’ bought 13 works, some for very large sums. Allowing for the possibility of mis-spelling, it is likely that ‘Cassell’ was the Prussian-born financier and close confidant of Edward VII, Ernest Cassel (1852-1921) who lived in London and had an exceptional art collection.
Upon his death, his estate was inherited by his sister, then four years later by his grand daughter Edwina, the future Lady Louis Mountbatten. Edwina lived in Cassel’s Brook House on Park Lane, where a great deal of his art collection was hung. The Mountbattens sold Brook House in 1939. We do not have definitive proof that Cassel and the Mountbattens were the owners from 1913 onwards but we do know that in the 1950s the painting came into the ownership of a Mr Boyle, an art dealer in Brighton. By then, it was un-stretched, rolled up and neglected. The large canvas may have incurred damage during the hostilities of the Second World War or as a result of measures taken to protect it from perceived threats during the conflict. It remained rolled up and neglected in Mr Boyle’s stockroom until the early 1960s when it was reframed and restored and purchased by the Dyer family of Surrey. The Dyers owned it until 1982, when it when they sold the work privately to the Jamieson family. In 2016 the Jamiesons commissioned its restoration by Jennifer Ridd, a fellow of the B.A.P.R.