eight assignments with The Salvation Army had produced 23,000 decisions and his crowds were anywhere up to 1,500. Evangelist travels He traveled extensively around the world on evangelistic crusades, drawing crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands throughout his life. Busy as he was, he never grew tired of visiting Romani 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. Several of these hymns he would sing were recorded by Columbia Records. Although he was a Methodist, ministers of all denominations loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without conversions. During World War I he ministered under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A. 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. 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. Smith's second wife 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 service and cremation were held 8 August 1947 in New York City. A memorial with a plaque was unveiled on 2 July 1949 at Mill Plain, Epping Forest, England, his birthplace; his ashes are reportedly buried beneath this. 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." External links Autobiography of Gipsy Smith Biography A book on his life (copyright free) English Salvationists English evangelicals Salvation Army officers People from Epping Forest District 1860 births 1947 deaths Evangelists English Romani people Romani Christians