Susan Woodhouse is an octogenarian with a lot of verve and gusto, which in view of the project she has recently completed, is just as well. She has spent the last 25 years writing a book about Garfield Todd who was Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia for five years from 1953-58.
She gleaned the information for the book from her own memory as an employee of Todd’s while he was in office and later on his cattle ranch, as well as from archival research, meaning that she had to make seven trips back to Zimbabwe over seven years. She spent a number of years in Africa later marrying Archdeacon John Paul of Messumba Mission in Mozambique, only returning to the UK in 1970.
She worked alongside her husband in his various congregations in Castle Douglas, Portobello and Elgin serving on church boards and committees. When she and her husband retired to East Lothian, Garfield Todd asked her to write his biography.
Susan explained to The Edinburgh Reporter : “It was Garfield’s idea. He said that I knew them better than anyone. I’d worked for him for eight years, two of which were in his office as Prime Minister which was quite frightening. Then I worked on his cattle ranch. Not as a Harriet the lariat, herding cattle. We had men on bicycles for that. I worked for him for and lived with the family which was wonderful because I really got to know them. It was because of that he asked me to write the book.”
Todd who was a descendant from 19th century Scottish emigrants to New Zealand died in 2002 following an illustrious career. The story which Susan has written takes the reader from New Zealand to Rhodesia and now Zimbabwe. Todd was 94 years-old when he died which is why Susan says it had to be quite a long book!
Garfield and his wife Grace began life in New Zealand, moving to Southern Rhodesia as Christian missionaries in 1934. He recognised that the future of Rhodesia was non-racial and multicultural but this view was not shared by others when he was ousted in a cabinet coup under pressure from the largely white electorate.
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