Todd, Frederick Augustus (FA)

Frederick Augustus TODD was born at Alexandria, an inner suburb of Sydney, on 14 March 1880. Both his mother, Margaret Ann (nee Lappin), and his father, William Alexander Neil Todd, were native-born Australians. Todd was educated at Sydney Boys High School, from where he matriculated in 1898, winning the James Aitken scholarship for general proficiency, and being awarded the Cooper prize for classics. He studied Classics at Sydney University, winning the Cooper scholarship in both 1899 and 1900. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1901 with first-class honours in Greek and Latin, and was awarded the University Medal for Classics, and the Woolley travelling scholarship. He studied at the University of Leipzig in 1901-2, and at the University of Jena in 1902-3, where he studied under Professor Georg Goetz. He was awarded a Ph.D by the University of Jena, graduating magna cum laude. The University of Jena published his thesis, "De musis in carminibus poetarum Romanorum commemoratis", later in the same year.

Following the completion of his degree Todd returned to Sydney and was appointed Lecturer in Latin at Sydney University. In 1908 Todd acted as Professor of Greek, and in 1909 he was acting Professor of Latin. In that same year he and E.R. Garnsey founded the N.S.W. branch of the Classical Association. Appointed Assistant Professor of Latin in 1913 he became acting Professor of the Department in 1920, following the retirement of Professor T. Butler because of ill-health. In 1922 he successfully applied for the Chair of Latin, a position he held until his death. Also in 1922 his translations of a number of Martial's epigrams were published by the University as "Selections from Martial". The work, primarily for use by Latin students, was reprinted in 1927.

Todd's other activities were numerous and help explain his failure to produce the substantial body of original work in Classics which was expected of him. From 1912 to 1922 he served as Secretary of the University Extension Board and gave many lectures under its auspices. Todd was a member of the N.S.W. Board of Examiners for 24 years, from 1914-37, and of the N.S.W. Board of Secondary School Studies from 1937-41. In 1914 he was elected President of the Sydney University Union, and was a member of the Board of the Union for the years 1914-17, and 1925-6. From 1930-37 Todd was Dean of the Faculty of Arts, during which term he also served as a Fellow of the University Senate.

During the First World War Todd held the positions of military interpreter and assistant censor, and in 1918 he enlisted in the A.I.F., although he did not serve overseas. He briefly held the position of assistant censor during the Second World War, from 25 August 1939 until he resigned on 12 January 1940 because of a conflict with the Deputy District Censor.

A breakdown of his health in 1937 had forced Todd to take a less active part in University administration, but enabled him to spend more time on scholarship. In the period between 1937 and his death in 1944, Todd published a number of articles on Pompeian wall inscriptions, and Roman poets. In 1940 Oxford University Press published his monograph "Some Ancient Novels", and tried to encourage him to undertake a larger study on the same subject.

On 4 February 1919 Todd had married Helen Grahame Glover, with whom he had 2 sons and 3 daughters. For all his married life Todd and his family lived in Mosman. Todd died in the Staff Common Room on 13 June 1944, of a coronary occlusion. During his funeral, held at St. Augustine's Anglican Church in Neutral Bay, the University war memorial hymn, 'Campanarum canticum', which Todd had composed, was played on the carillon and concurrently the University quadrangle was stilled. He was survived by his wife and all his children.

SOURCES:
1. Todd Papers, Sydney University Archives Record Group P113.
2. The Union Recorder, 13 July 1944, pp. 99-100.
3. Biographical Notes by Gerald Fischer, University Archivist (1969-80), 15 December 1972.
4. Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 12 (1990), pp. 237-8.