Rodney "Gipsy" Smith MBE (31 March 1860 – 4 August 1947) was a British evangelist who conducted evangelistic campaigns in the United States and Great Britain for over 70 years. He was an early member of The Salvation Army and a contemporary of Fanny Crosby and acquaintance of G. Campbell Morgan and H. A. Ironside.Rodney "Gipsey" Smith (March 31, 1860 – August 4, 1947) was a British preacher and evangelist whose ministry spanned over 70 years, leading countless souls to Christ through powerful crusades in Britain and America. Born in a Romani tent in Epping Forest, near London, England, to Cornelius Smith, a hawker and fiddler, and Mary Welch, he was the fourth of six children in a family that roamed, selling baskets and clothes pegs. Uneducated, he taught himself to read and write after his conversion at 16 on November 17, 1876, at a Primitive Methodist Chapel in Cambridge, influenced by his father’s faith, Ira Sankey’s singing, and a visit to John Bunyan’s home. Smith’s preaching career began in 1877 with the Christian Mission (later The Salvation Army) under William Booth, where his eight assignments yielded 23,000 decisions before his 1882 dismissal over accepting gifts—a gold watch and £5 for his wife—breaching Army rules. As an independent evangelist, he drew massive crowds, from 4,000 in Hanley to 10,000 at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1924, preaching extemporaneously with song, notably recorded by Columbia Records. His 50+ U.S. tours and global campaigns—in Sweden, South Africa, Australia—saw hundreds of thousands converted, including 80,000 in a 1926 Australasian tour. Author of Gipsy Smith: His Life and Work (1901), he remained tied to his Romani roots, often visiting encampments. Married twice—first to Annie Pennock in 1879, with three children (Albany, Alfred, and Rhoda), until her death in 1937, then to Mary Alice Shaw in 1938—he passed away at age 87 aboard the Queen Mary en route to America.