THE life of an early 20th century Swindon evangelist and missionary is celebrated in a new booklet.

George Sims, born in 1881 in Rodbourne, was converted to Christianity by a colleague at the GWR blacksmith shop.

Another colleague was Alfred Williams, the town’s famed Hammerman Poet, who wrote two sonnets about him.

George preached the Gospel in locations across southern Africa before returning to his hometown in 1963, and died in 1974.

The booklet about him, A Tribute GW Sims MBE, is the work of Martin Robins, a family friend whose grandfather, WJ Robins, came to the GWR works from Torquay in 1899.

Martin said: “He was lodging in Percy Street, where George Sims lived. They became very close friends.

“In 1901 George felt he should go to China as a missionary.”

At the time, China was at war with Japan, making such a journey impossible.

Martin said: “In 1904 my grandfather went to see him during a lunch break. George said he had had a dream that he was going to Africa - he said he didn’t know where he was going, but it would be Africa.”

He set sail for South Africa on April 6, 1907. He had fallen in love with a nurse, Margaret Jenkins.

She waited for him until his return to Swindon seven years later, and the two married in 1915 before heading for Kaleba in what is now the Republic of Zambia, where he had established a base for his work.

Eventually becoming a speaker of 10 languages, George translated religious texts.

Martin Robins’ book notes: “He spent hours and hours conferring with fellow missionaries that the people might have a Bible to read, a Testament to read, a Bible to read in their own tongue.”

Margaret Sims ran a dispensary and a school. She died in 1958, and George married Ethel Woolnough the following year.

George had been made an MBE in the 1956 Queen’s Birthday Honours, with the citation mentioning his public service in what was then Northern Rhodesia.

On the return of George and Ethel to Swindon in 1963, one of the items waiting for them was an armchair promised by Martin’s grandfather for George’s retirement before he set off from Southampton 56 years earlier.

A Christian himself, he still has the armchair at his home in Lower Stanton St Quintin, near Chippenham.

He was close to George and recalls visiting him during the last days of his life.

“I thought I heard a noise in the room. He was humming the hymn that had called him to the mission field.”

The 20-page booklet, featuring illustrations by Corsham artist Phil Gee, is available at no cost from the author.

Martin can be contacted on 01666 837747.