Roger Todd

Posted: April 2nd, 2024

ROGER TODD, former Daily Mirror Home Affairs correspondent, died on March 22 [2024], aged 84, in a Surrey care home.

Roger was born in Stuttgart, Germany on May 23, 1939. His father, a journalist, was executed by the Nazis. Roger’s mother later married a British soldier stationed in Germany, and came to England when Roger was nine years old.

Roger was married to Zelda West-Meads, the renowned relationship counsellor, former Relate spokesperson and ex-Mail on Sunday columnist.

Before he retired as a journalist with the Daily Mirror in London as Home Affairs correspondent, Roger spent several years as a no-nonsense hard-news reporter.

He was a skilled real tennis player as well as a squash player of some standing, and a knowledgeable collector of African carvings from his travels to Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria.

He was a keen gardener and was known for his love of animals, caring for foxes in his Surrey garden. On retirement, he joined a small group of musicians, playing the saxophone in local pubs.

Former colleague Michael McCarthy writes: “As Home Affairs correspondent for the Mirror, Roger Todd seemed to me the very model of a tabloid specialist – diligent, hard-working, serious-minded and authoritative.

“He was a master of tabloidese and famously wrote his short paragraphs, each containing one impeccable fact, down the middle of the page. I doubt he ever needed subbing.

“But he also had a fascinating intellectual hinterland, which was an expertise in African art, and in particular the tribal sculptures of Cameroon, an interest sharpened by the fact that Cameroon had been a German colony and there was still a lot of German influence there – Roger himself was German.

“Roger’s first wife was Sally Moore, who became famous for running the Mirror’s Shopping Clock feature, a brilliant graphical idea that made the 70’s inflation so instantly visible.

“May he rest in peace.”