Geoffrey Sydney Todd had an unusual and distinguished career. Born in Melbourne, he was educated at the King's School, Parramatta and Sydney University where he graduated in medicine in 1925. He spent the next three years at the Wagga District Hospital becoming its superintendent before departing for England where he proposed to obtain his FRCS. However, his friend Dr (later Sir) Kenneth Noad (qv) who was a house physician at the Brompton Hospital invited him to play tennis with the RMO (superintendent), himself and another. Todd had been the tennis champion of Sydney University in 1923 and so impressed the RMO who considered himself an ace that he invited Todd to take a post as house physician. This chance encounter altered the whole course of Todd's career. He so enjoyed his work and play at the Brompton that he abandoned his surgical aspirations and obtained his MRCP in 1929. When promoted to the position of assistant RMO he had responsibility for the post-operative care of patients operated on by the two leading thoracic surgeons of the day - JEH Roberts and Tudor Edwards. The surgery in this emerging speciality was mostly for tuberculous conditions in which Todd gained invaluable hands-on experience. He stayed a further three years at the Brompton succeeding to the post of RMO which had important administrative as well as clinical responsibilities.

In 1934, despite his comparative youth, he succeeded Richard Traill as superintendent of the King Edward VII Sanatorium Midhurst, where in a very short time he established facilities for thoracic surgery to complement the recognised sanatorium regimen.

Todd was in many ways a martinet. Knowledgeable, self-confident, an astute clinician and a most capable administrator he "ran a tight ship". Though in some ways feared by staff and patients he was kind and considerate yet always forthright and throughout his life retained his Australian accent and drawl. Many aspiring respiratory physicians from Australia gained invaluable experience under his tutelage, played him at billiards before dinner and followed him dutifully to the high table in the dining room. He had the flexibility to move with the times. During World War II half the beds at Midhurst were allocated as a surgical chest centre and later as the number of patients with respiratory diseases referred to Midhurst diminished, Todd ensured that its clinical activities expanded into other fields, so that in 1964 the name was changed from sanatorium to hospital.

Geoffrey Todd was consultant physician to both the Army and the Royal Air Force. This and his outstanding contribution to the Royal Foundation at Midhurst were recognised by the award of an OBE in 1946, a CVO in 1947 and a KCVO four years later. He was devoted to his widowed mother who lived with him at Midhurst, so that he did not marry until after her death. In 1955 he married Margaret (Margot) Sheen and they lived at the hospital until his retirement in 1970 after thirty-six years as superintendent. This did not mean the severance of his connections with Midhurst as he was appointed administrator of the Midhurst Medical Research Institute, a post he retained until 1981. Todd was not a researcher but he was a superb clinician. In 1956 he gave the first Marc Daniels Memorial Lecture in the Royal College of Physicians on "Chemotherapeutic control in the treatment of fibro-nodular pulmonary tuberculosis" and the Tudor Edwards Lecture in 1971 on "Tudor Edwards and his time." Geoffrey Todd was justly proud of Midhurst to which he had devoted almost all his professional life and through which he had acquired an international reputation.