Ida Margaret Todd (1876-1949) was his mother

Nicholls - Many of the new immigrants travelled out on the 'Garth Castle' arriving in Mombasa on 25 December 1919. One of the party, C.T. Todd, said that none of them 'realised what a complicated business farming is, and we had not visualised the difficulties that would present themselves in territory that was nothing more than an empty wilderness and where we were totally ignorant of local conditions. We were to learn the hard way.' …..

Many of the soldier-settlers then abandoned their farms and returned to England. But some stayed on, taking any job they could get - for example Todd went foot trading in the Northern Frontier District, exchanging goods for ivory and rhino horn with the Suk and Turkana.

Nicholls - A new type of woman was seen in Kenya after the war [WW1], a person who stood in conspicuous contrast to the hard-working farmers' wives. C.T. Todd, recently arrived as a farm pupil, was astounded to see a topless white woman when he went visiting one day. He explained his surprise to himself by reasoning that in a community as small as Kenya's such people were so very obvious, whereas if they had remained in Britain, they would have been no more unusual than the other Bright Young Things.

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List

C.T. Todd, 'Kenya's Red Sunset', Bodleian Library Mss. Afr.s.917/1: Went to East Africa in 1920 with my friend Jocelyn Preston. Pupils on the farm of Blatherwick. Then went as a pupil to Crawford's farm at Old Doroto.. Flax dropped from 500 pounds to 50 pounds a ton so I went trading in the NFD on foot, with porters Suk and Turkana  I traded goods for ivory and rhino horn. Then went to help R.B. Cole, a northern Irishman, at Naro Moru. Lived in a mobile cabin. When the Indian situation arose we were organized into a striking force, with its own general staff under the command of General Critchley. A form was distributed in which we stated the number and types of guns and ammunition we had and what means of transport. Also asked if we had qualifications as engineers or mechanics etc. After the information was collated, all districts formed mobile sections and were told what rations, kit etc would be required for an advance on Nairobi where, after taking all the administrative posts on the way, it was proposed to seize the governor. Women and children were to be concentrated in various townships where the older men would protect them. Had the sympathy of a number of the administrative, political and military staff. Tacit arrangement had been agreed with the military that they would be taken by surprise in their mess.

I left Cole and went to Colonel Hickson as farm as manager. Then I fell off the horse and had a bad pain in my back. Doctor arrived on the third day and I spent five months in hospital in Nairobi. Went to England and Switzerland. After four years I could walk with two sticks because I had been paralysed from the waist down. Returned to Kenya in 1929 and bought a farm at Timau.