Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Hall of Fame If newspapers were to be believed, Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are guilty of everything and capable of nothing. To read about Gypsies, Roma and Travellers that have made their mark beyond Britain, see: www.imninalu.net/famousGypsies.htm In 1953, the Encyclopaedia Britannica proclaimed: “The mental age of the average adult Gypsy is thought to be about that of a child of ten. Gypsies have never accomplished anything of great significance in writing, painting, musical composition, science or social organisation. Quarrelsome, quick to anger or laughter, they are unthinkingly but not deliberately cruel. Loving bright colours, they are ostentatious and boastful, but lack bravery.”
Martin Taylor
The following Gypsies, Roma or Travellers are just some of the many household names across Britain. Jake Bowers
Sir Michael Caine
(Ayrshire, Scotland, 1956) Martin Taylor is a self-taught guitarist of international prestige. He is a Romanichal. Among his achievements, he has been granted the British Empire Membership for his services to music in 2002, has got the British Jazz Award as best guitarist ten times between 1987 and 2001, the Honorary Doctorate University of Paisley, Scotland in 1999, Pioneer to the Life of the Nation in 2003 and other honours and medals.
(Rotherhithe, London, 14/3/1933) Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, it was a tradition of his Romanichal family to call the firstborn son Maurice. As an actor, he has twice won Oscars (1986 and 1999). He was knighted in the year 2000 for his contribution to performing arts.
John Bunyan
(Elstow, Harrowden, Bedfordshire, 28/11/1628 – Snow Hill, London, 31/8/1688)
Ferdinand Koci’s painting, created for our poster competition depicts many famous Gypsy Roma and Travellers. Posters and postcards are still available.
Django Reinhardt
(Liberchies, Belgium, 23/1/1910 - Fontainebleau, France, 16/5/1953) Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt was the first and still the greatest European jazz musician. His origins have never been a mystery, he belonged to one of the most numerous German Sinti families, of the Eftavagarya group. Even after two of his fingers were seriously damaged by an accident, Django outstandingly performed violin, guitar and banjo with the use of his healthy fingers. Django’s particular style is also defined “Gypsy Jazz”.
Yul Brynner
(Vladivostok, 7/7/1915 – New York, 10/10/1985) An undoubtedly controversial person, his origins have been a mystery for many. Actually he had only 1⁄4 of Romany blood. It was among Roma that he began his adventurous life, playing guitar in Romany circles and working as a trapezist in circus. He was elected Honorary President of the Roma, an office that he kept until his death.
Sir Charles Chaplin
(Walworth, London, 16/4/1889 – Vevey, Switzerland, 25/12/1977) Born Charles Spencer Chaplin, his parents were music hall artists. It is usually assumed that he was Jewish, an assertion that seems not to be true. His mother, Hannah Smith, was Romanichal, and probably also his father was.
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people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools.
George Bramwell Evens
(Hull, 1884 - Wilmslow, Cheshire, 1943) George Bramwell Evens was a very popular BBC journalist, better known as “Romany of the BBC”. His broadcasts about nature and life in the countryside inspired David Attenborough and David Bellamy.
Louise Doughty
(Rutland, East Midlands, 1963) Louise Doughty was born in 1963 in the East Midlands, UK. She grew up in Rutland, England’s smallest county, a rural area that later provided the setting for her third novel, Honey-Dew. After her first three novels, Doughty took a dramatic departure with her fourth, the internationally acclaimed Fires in the Dark, the first in a series of long novels based on the history of the Romany people and her own family ancestry. It was followed by Stone Cradle in 2006.
John Bunyan was the author of the most popular classic of Christian literature: “The Pilgrim’s Progress”. He is widely considered by historians as a “Tinker”, a name given in Great Britain and Ireland not only to Gypsies but also to other Traveller groups. Parish registers of the 16th century describe the Bunyans as “Egyptians”.
Gypsy men are great sportsman, on the field and in the boxing ring.
Elvis Presley
Eric Cantona (24/5/1966)
Raby Howell (12/10/1869 – 1937) Romanichal, Sheffield United, Liverpool (GB)
(East Tupelo, Mississippi, 8/1/1935 – Memphis, Tennessee, 16/8/1977)
Manouche Leeds, Manchester United (GB)
Elvis Aaron Presley’s ancestors came from Germany in the early 18th century and their original surname was Pressler. They were part of the Sinti people commonly known as “Black Dutch”, also called “Chicanere” or “Melungeons”. It is also likely that his mother Gladys Love Smith was a Romanichal.
Caló Arsenal (GB), Real Madrid
Rita Hayworth
(New York, US, 17/10/1918 – New York, US 14/05/87) An American Romany actress who rose to stardom in the 1940s as the era’s leading sex symbol. She was known as “The Love Goddess”, and was celebrated as an expert dancer and a great beauty.
Bob Hoskins
(Bury St. Edmund’s, Suffolk, 26/10/1942) Robert William Hoskins, as many Gypsies, spent his youth travelling and performing occasional activities like working in circus. Then he turned to the cinema and succeeded as actor. His family on his mother’s side are German Sinti.
Mother Teresa
(Uskub, Macedonia 26/08/1910 – Calcutta, India 05/09/1997) An Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the missionaries of charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over forty years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity’s expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally known. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine
José Antonio Reyes Calderón (1/9/1983) Andrea Pirlo (19/11/1979) Rom, AC Milan, World Cup Winner (Italy) Freddy Eastwood (29/10/1983) Romanichal, West Ham United, Grays Athletic, Southend United (GB) Jem Mace (8/4/1831 - 30/11/1910) Romanichal, Heavyweight Champion of England and World Champion, is considered the “father of modern boxing Johnny Frankham (Reading, 6/6/1948) British Light Heavyweight Champion in 1975, famous for having floored the great Cassius Clay in an exhibition fight.