Rodney "Gipsy" Smith MBE (31 March 1860- 4 August 1947) was a British evangelist. He conducted evangelistic campaigns in the United States and Great Britain for over 70 years.
Born in a gypsy tent six miles northeast of London, at Epping Forest, Smith received no education. The family made a living selling baskets, tinware, and clothespegs. His father, Cornelius, and his mother, Mary (Polly) Welch, provided a home that was happy in the gypsy wagon. Smith was a child when his mother died from smallpox near Baldock in Hertfordshire. She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Nicholas church in Norton, now part of Letchworth Garden City. The Smith children numbered four girls and two boys (Rodney was the fourth child).

Cornelius was in and out of jail for various offences. There, he heard the gospel from a prison chaplain; later, he and his brothers were converted at a mission meeting. From 1873 on, "The Converted Gypsies" were involved in numerous evangelistic efforts.
He taught himself to read and write and began to practice preaching. He would sing hymns to the people he met and was known as "the singing gypsy boy."

At a convention at the Christian Mission William Booth noticed the Gypsies and realized the potential in young Smith. On June 25, 1877, he accepted the invitation of Booth to be an evangelist with and for the Mission. For six years (1877-1882), he served on street corners and mission halls.
He traveled extensively around the world on evagelistic crusades, drawing crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands throughout his life. Busy as he was, he never grew tired of visiting gypsy encampments . Gipsy never wrote a sermon out for preaching purposes. He was Methodist, ministers of all denominations loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without conversions. A grandson, Sonnie Gibbard, of England, is an evangelist for the England based evangelistic group, Gypsies for Christ.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?