Roberts, Evan John

(1878–1951)

   Missionary Revivalist.

   Roberts was born in Glamorgan, Wales, in very humble circumstances.

   After a short career as a miner and blacksmith, he was accepted for training as a Calvinist Methodist minister in 1904. That year Roberts had a deep spiritual experience and he felt inspired to return home to conduct a mission. There was an extraordinary religious revival throughout Glamorgan with many manifestations of the more spectacular gifts of the Spirit. Roberts and his friends then took the message to Liverpool, Anglesey and Caernarvonshire. Altogether it has been estimated that one hundred thousand people were converted as a result of his work. By 1906, however, Roberts himself was exhausted and he retired from his preaching career.

   E. Evans, The Welsh Revival of 1904 (1969).