During the war, a German bomb that landed on the family's air-raid shelter knocked Todd out cold. When he came round, he and his mother sang for two hours before they were dug out. Todd left school at the age of 14 to sweep floors in a barber's shop; he then worked as a plumber's mate. In 1945 at the age of 18 he married Josephine Tarrant. In the same year he got a call up to the Royal Marines. He had initially favoured the Royal Navy, but he later recalled with pride that he and his father were the first father and son in the Marines to appear on the parade ground together. For a time he served alongside his father in the Marines when they were posted to Hong Kong with 42 Commando. While in the Far East he took part in the liberation of British, Australian, New Zealand and some American troops from Japanese prisoner-of-war-camps, and then guarded captured Japanese.
