James Henry TODD

TODD, JAMES HENRY (b. Milton, New Zealand, 25 July 1864; d. Sydney, NSW, 26 May 1947). Missionary and itinerant Bible teacher.

James Todd was born in New Zealand, the son of a Presbyterian minister. In his early twenties he commenced a YMCA program at Napier and arranged regular evangelistic meetings to considerable effect. He left his secular employment in 1891 to take charge of a small country church and in the following year attended the University of Otago. In 1893 he spent 10 months at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He began work with CIM in China in 1895, but illness forced him home in 1899, though not before he had married Amy Chambers and established a good working relationship with the Directors of CIM. He lectured for two years at Moody Bible Institute and in 1905 returned to New Zealand where he served till 1906 as New Zealand Secretary of CIM, then Australian Secretary of CIM 1906-14. In Australia he joined the Brethren and gave himself to itinerant preaching and teaching within their congregations. In 1921 he was invited to become associate editor of Australian Missionary Tidings, a monthly magazine reporting Brethren missionary activity. On the death of the first editor, F Kemp (q.v.) in 1940 James Todd moved to Sydney and edited the magazine until his death in 1947. He wrote several books and conducted an extensive Bible correspondence course. He arranged and lectured at a Friday evening Bible study class in Sydney which attracted a large audience.

Rowland C Edwards, J H Todd: An Appreciation (Rose Bay, 1947)

KEN J NEWTON