Rodney "Gypsy" Smith
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Rodney "Gypsy" Smith (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. He was a contemporary of Fanny Crosby and G. Campbell Morgan.
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[edit] Early life
Born in a gypsy tent six miles northeast of London, at Epping Forest, he 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. Rodney was a child when his mother died from smallpox. The Smith children numbered four girls and two boys (Rodney was the fourth child).
Cornelius was in and out of jail for various offenses. Here he heard the gospel from a prison chaplain and later he and his brothers were converted at a mission meeting. From 1873 on, "The Converted Gypsies" were involved in numerous evaelistic efforts.
[edit] Conversion
Rodney's conversion as a sixteen-year-old came as a result of a combination of things. The witness of his father, hearing Ira Sankey sing and the visit to the home of John Bunyan in Bedford all contributed. 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 (later to become the Salvation Army) headquarters in London, William Booth noticed the gypsies and realized the potential in young Rodney. 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.
[edit] Salvation Army
He was married on December 17, 1879 to Annie E. Pennock, one of his converts. They served in several assignments and saw membership rise to hundreds, then a thousand. By June 1882, great crowds were coming and the work was growing. A gold watch was given him and about £20.00 was presented to his wife by the warm-hearted members of a local congregation. Acceptance of these gifts was a breach of the rules and regulations of the Salvation Army, and for this, he was dismissed from the Army. His eight assignments with the Salvation Army had produced 23,000 decisions and his crowds were anywhere up to 1,500.
[edit] Evangelist travels
He began to 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 whenever he could on both sides of the Atlantic. Gipsy never wrote a sermon out for preaching purposes. Smith wrote several books and could sing as well as he preached. Sometimes he would interrupt his sermon and burst into song. Although he was a Methodist, ministers of all denominations loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without conversions.
Duing World War I he ministered under the Y.M.C.A. auspices to the British troops in France often visiting the front lines. As a result of this, King George VI made him a member of the Order of the British Empire.
[edit] Later life
Gipsy Smith's wife, Annie, died in 1937 at the age of 79 while he was in America. Front page headlines in 1938 carried the news of the 78-year-old widower marrying Mary Alice Shaw on her 27th birthday. This, of course, brought some criticism. But it was a good marriage, for she helped him in his meetings, sang, did secretarial work, and later nursed him when his health failed.
Stricken by a heart attack, he died on the Queen Mary on a cruise in America, age 87. It was estimated that this was his 45th crossing of the Atlantic. His funeral was held August 8, 1947 in New York City. A memorial with a plaque was unveiled on July 2, 1949 at Mill Plain, Epping Forest, England, his birthplace. So ends the life of one who once said, "I didn't go through your colleges and seminaries. They wouldn't have me...but I have been to the feet of Jesus were the only true scholarship is learned."
[edit] Sources
- http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=145 "The material contained in this publication is purposely not copyrighted. You are free to make copies for others."
