Garfield Todd
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Reverend The Honorable Sir Garfield Todd |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 5th Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia | |
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In office 7 September 1953 – 17 February 1958 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Godfrey Huggins |
| Succeeded by | Edgar Whitehead |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 July 1908 Invercargill, New Zealand |
| Died | 13 October 2002 (aged 94) Bulawayo, Zimbabwe |
| Political party |
United Rhodesia Party United Federal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Grace |
| Children |
Judith Todd Alycen Watson Cynthia Gay Todd |
| Alma mater |
University of Otago Witwatersrand University Butler University |
| Religion | Congregationalist |
Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd (13 July 1908 – 13 October 2002) was a liberal Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia from 1953 to 1958 and later became an opponent of white minority rule in Rhodesia.
Todd was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1908. He was educated at Otago University, Glen Leith Theological College, and the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1932 he married Jean Grace Wilson, with whom he had three daughters.
Todd emigrated to Southern Rhodesia from New Zealand in 1934 as a Protestant missionary and ran the Dadaya New Zealand Churches of Christ Mission school. One of the primary-school teachers in his charge was Robert Mugabe. Though he had no formal medical training, Todd and his wife, Grace, set up a clinic where he delivered hundreds of babies and treated minor injuries.
In 1948 Todd won election to the colonial parliament. He succeeded Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins as leader of the United Rhodesia Party and Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia in 1953 when Huggins became the inaugural Prime Minister of the newly established Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953. At the same time the United Rhodesia Party became the United Federal Party.
From 1955 to 1960 Todd served as first vice-president of the World Convention of Churches of Christ.
Todd introduced modest reforms aimed at improving the education of the black majority by taking tax-money paid by Rhodesian property owners and appropriations from the British colonial authorities, and directing it toward black schools. His government introduced a plan to give elementary education to every African of school age. He doubled the number of primary schools and gave grants to missionary-run schools to introduce secondary school and pre-university courses for blacks.
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