#15172, Alfred John Kennett TODD

The third and youngest son of George and Beatrice Todd, Jack, as he was known, took on serious responsibilities as a boy. He was expected to watch over his brother Alan, older by nearly 3 years, who suffered epileptic seizures from about the age of 10. Alan used to try to escape at night and sharing a bedroom, Jack was expected to prevent this, a difficult task for a younger sibling. In due course Alan was moved to residential care then to the City of London Lunatic Asylum where he died aged 21.

Both Jack and Alan went to school in Eastbourne before Jack moved to Rugby School aged 14.

Jack enjoyed the company of his fellow men. On leaving school he camped with school friends in the Lake District before enrolling at the Liverpool College of Architecture in 1908. His talent as a draftsman continued throughout his life despite his training as an Architect being cut short. In later life he designed an extension to his 1830s villa, Bathwick Hill House, in Bath.

WW1 changed his plans. He joined up as 2^nd Lieutenant Special Reserve the Queen’s Dragoon Guards on the 15^th August 1914. He served in France with the Queen’s Bays, promoted to Captain, until he was shot in the shoulder on 20^th May 1918, saving a soldier in no man’s land; an act of bravery mentioned in dispatches. After being stationed in the Remount Depots in Romsey and Woolwich, his injury meant he had no future in the regiment; leaving his pals was a great sadness.

In 1919, having lost his mother, Beatrice Todd in 1916, his father, George Todd, in February 1918 and his grandfather, Alfred Chaworth Lyster that January, he was almost the only member of his immediate family alive. He looked to build a new life with Miss (Edith) Mary Gray, the daughter of a good friend of his father, William Ernest (Bill) Gray. Soon after their engagement he heard of the death of his older brother, George, from TB in France. On his wedding day he and Mary visited his Uncle Cis (Dr Cecil Rupert Chaworth Lyster, an ‘X-Ray Martyr’) on his death bed. These bereavements would have weighed heavily on him, especially after the enormous losses he witnessed fighting in France.

Together he and Mary chose to set up a farm in Devon. An Army Hut that had been part of Mary’s Aunt Bessie’s Argyll and Sutherland Army camp became their home. Despite every effort the farm proved unsuccessful so Jack, now known universally as Toddy, moved into the world of politics, first as a Political Agent in Cambridgeshire, then as the Conservative MP for Berwick on Tweed in 1929.

The family moved to Northumberland where in addition to their, by now, three children, Josephine (named after his good friend Brigadier Joseph Kingstone) Evelyn and Matthew, they adopted Toddy’s orphaned nephews, Kenny and Hugh Lyster-Todd. They also made a home for two boys, Brian and Reggie Kent, whose parents were unable to.

Political life continued until 1935, when Toddy renounced the National Government Whip for “dissent over India and several domestic measures” leading to his resignation as Conservative member. In 1935 he stood unsuccessfully as an Independent Candidate.

From Northumberland the family moved to Yateley in Hampshire and during WW2 gave a home to their nephew, Kenny’s family, to soldiers in training or wounded. Jo worked as a VAD at Hasler Hospital, John Evelyn Gray, (Buzz), served in the Royal Navy and Matthew Robert in Submarines.

Toddy resumed his military career in 1942, when, aged 52, he volunteered again to serve in the Army. He was posted to Cairo as a Press Liaison Officer and Censor. His letters home describe a difficult time coping with extreme Summer heat and Winter cold. The heat caused painful boils, uncomfortably endured in uniform. However, renting a small flat in Cairo that he made home to fellow officers, he became a popular host. He stood in for the father’s of brides on several occasions and, despite being older than most, joined in the social life, still maintaining contact with his old pals of the Queen’s Bays.

Stationed in Cairo, he missed the wedding of his own daughter, Joseph, as he called her, in July 1943. Instead he enjoyed the build up and the day itself from letters written by Mary and those who could attend. By his return in 1944 he had become a grandfather and was anxious to make up for his absence at those important family occasions with carefully chosen gifts for Joseph and Jeremy, his grandson.

After another move in Hampshire to Hartley Wintney, Toddy and Mary moved to Bath where he became Chair of the Hospital Committee and the local Conservative & Commonwealth Associations. He also became a tour guide at the Roman baths.

Toddy was generally held in high regard. He was a man who contributed generously in all areas of life. He preferred good quality clothes that lasted. He adored his various Alsatian dogs, enjoyed gardening, designing printing blocks for Yateley Industries for the Disabled, as well as his own Christmas Cards once in Bath. He enjoyed a cigarette and a whisky with his male friends and maintained a sense of humour despite difficulties. His injured shoulder always gave him gyp; an X-Ray late in life showed the damaged first rib had healed backwards, but despite pain he was uncomplaining.

Toddy died following a heart attack while on holiday with Mary in Scotland aged 80. His life was commemorated in a moving service in Bath Abbey, a fitting place for a man who had lived a good life loyal to his principles, his family and friends. Modest, he enjoyed the respect of all who knew him.

Nicky Hibbin