Alida Margaretha Bosshardt was the face of the Salvation Army in both Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Everyone knew her as Major Bosshardt, even though she was actually a lieutenant-colonel. The Salvation Army, founded in London in 1878, gives practical help to people, Christians or non-Christians, who have dropped out of society. In 1948 Alida Bosshardt opened a Goodwill Centre in Amsterdam’s Red-Light District, where she mainly worked with prostitutes. Her work hit the headlines in 1965 when a photographer took pictures of her showing Princess Beatrix, in disguise, around the Red-Light District. Bosshardt had no children of her own but was a mother figure to the Amsterdam prostitutes. ‘Prostitution, in my eyes, isn’t the worst sin in the world,’ she said. Major Bosshardt remained active until well into old age.