#15173, Josephine Mary TODD

Josephine, named after her father’s good friend of the Queen’s Bays, J. Joseph Kingstone, was born in Blackheath. Post WW1 her parents set up a farm in Odam, Romansleigh, Devon where she spent her early days, soon to be joined by her brother Evelyn. Jo, pronouncing ‘brother’ as ‘Buzzer’, he became forever Buzz.

Moves to Swaffham Prior, where her brother Matthew was born, then to Northumberland, with her father’s move into Politics, meant they enjoyed the freedom of those rural surroundings. In addition to her brothers she was brought up with two orphaned cousins and two fostered boys. Jo had a brief spell at school in Kensington from her family’s base in London, then in Northumberland, she was taught by a governess at home. At 14 she started school at Farlington House where in her final year she became Headgirl. She loved exams! She said she remembered everything she had ever read! Quite a feat, as she was an avid reader. In 1938, at 17, she spent time in Paris perfecting her French before being Presented at Court.

During WW2 Jo worked as a VAD at the Royal Navy Hospital Haslar. Having first impressed him by changing into trousers to ride her motorbike home after a party, Robbie Mills asked Jo to marry him. After initially refusing, in July1943 they were married. The day, with its all ups and downs (the bride’s dress sent on a bus that morning, the groom’s father having no coupons for new shoes, wore her father’s) was closely documented in letters from the wedding guests to her father who unable to be there being stationed in Cairo (and so able to lend his shoes). Jo’s first pregnancy was managed by one of the Haslar Naval Surgeons.

Post war a move to Kent was prompted by Robbie’s commute to London but, failing his accountancy exams, in 1949, they moved back to Devon, where they built a house. He worked as Manager of his late grandfather’s quarry at Stoneycombe and she looked after their, by now, four young children at home. They became enthusiastic members of Kingskerswell amateur dramatic society and regularly attended Rugby Club and other dances.

In November 1955, following a tragic accident leaving the Submarine HMS Untiring in Torbay harbour after a social visit, Robbie died. Widowed with a young family Jo stoically carried on. Her belief in God, although kept private, strengthened at this time.

In 1956 she was befriended by a local beach photographer, a close friend of Robbie’s, he claimed. She did not remember him but took him at his word. Swearing her to secrecy, he told her he worked for the British Secret Services. He became a regular visitor, recounting to her and her children colourful incidents and injuries sustained during WW2 and since. His wife and two young children lived locally.

Jo succeeded in finding sponsors to Christ’s Hospital, both Hertford and Horsham, for her three youngest children and an Army Scholarship for the eldest. In 1959, this prompted a move to Hampshire, midway between the schools.

When her youngest daughter reached 18 Life Insurance payments ended, leading to the necessity for Jo to find work, but she had no qualifications. Having never studied sciences, in 1968, aged 47, she enrolled at a Further Education College to take first O level, then A Level, Maths and Computer Studies. The latter course involved sessions at RAF Boscombe Down, and when the course ended she was lucky enough to be offered employment there as a Scientific Officer. Promotion to Senior Scientific Office followed and she stayed there until she retired. Working with MOD Classified information she was required to sign the Official Secrets Act.

At 40 years of age, in 1984, her eldest son, Jeremy, died following a car crash. He had been treated for bone cancer so Jo felt grateful his death had avoided being painful and lingering.

On retirement she was persuaded to move to live in Andorra by her long standing friend from Devon, who had meanwhile moved to America with his family. Jo had remained loyal to him over the years and believed that in 1987, by then divorced, he would be able to settle with her in Andorra. Despite regular visits he never did so.

In Andorra Jo learnt to ski, winning several races in her age group. Her Christian belief deepened with the support of the local Chaplaincy and she became a healer. 13 years later, at her friend’s suggestion, she moved to France for more accessible health care for them both. After a winter in a gîte in the Aude region of France, where she celebrated her 80^th birthday with family, they found a house in Ax-les-Thermes, close to the border with Andorra. During a visit there in 2001, consulting the local Notaire, they put forward plans for him to inherit her house. This however proved impossible under French Law.

Jo, became less able to look after herself. After a stay in an English Residential Home she moved to live with her daughter in France where, over four years, the local Chaplaincy supported her with home visits, bringing her Communion. After a finally peaceful death, her funeral took place in a local Protestant Church. Her ashes were then taken back to her old parish church in Devon to join her husband and son at a Service attended by both Mills and Todd families.

Nicky Hibbin