Josh Townsend Joshua Richard Townsend was a friend of Sarah Jane Smith . He protected her on her adventures . Josh was an only child , raised in the city , and his parents were divorced . Townsend was his mother ' s maiden name . ( AUDIO : " Dreamland " ) His mother seems to have remarried . Josh stayed in touch with his father , Sir Donald Wakefield , and was strongly influenced by him despite nobody knowing of their connection . Like his father , he was a member of the White Chapter of the Orphans of the Future . ( AUDIO : " Dreamland " ) His mother and stepfather were hoteliers who ran a ski resort near the Swiss Alps . Despite their wealth , he refused any financial assistance from them . ( AUDIO : " Comeback " ) He visited them by boat rather than by plane . ( AUDIO : " Ghost Town " ) As a young man , Josh set several buildings afire and apparently was good at it until he got caught . He later became involved with some unsavoury fringe groups , and spent eight months in Feltham Prison . After apparently cleaning up his act a bit and moving from one dead - end job to another ( including McDonald ' s , Waterstones , and a printing press ) , Josh found his calling protecting Sarah from her enemies . He first met Sarah when he was 24 years old . In the the five weeks leading up to meeting her , he lost three mobile phones . ( AUDIO : " Comeback " ) He accompanied Sarah to the Huang Ti Clinic to find out what its connection with a dead teenager that looked 70 . ( AUDIO : " The Tao Connection " ) He posed as a journalist for the " Metropolitan " to look round a medical research facility . He was later lured into a trap by Harris . ( AUDIO : " Test of Nerve " ) He hadn ' t flown before when Sarah took him to Romania on holiday . He didn ' t believe that Sarah had seen a ghost . ( AUDIO : " Ghost Town " ) He was going to paint Sarah ' s new flat . He was attacked when Hilda Winters ' goons came to steal K9 Mark III . ( AUDIO : " Mirror , Signal , Manoeuvre " ) He was glad that the business with Miss Winters was over when she died . He wanted to know why Sarah would go and see someone called Harry . Because of this he couldn ' t stop a buglary . He killed Luca Parenti . ( AUDIO : " Buried Secrets " ) He went with Sarah to Nikita Base after Will Sullivan invited them there . ( AUDIO : " Snow Blind " ) He helped to investigate Rechauffe when they needed to expose a new drug . ( AUDIO : " Fatal Consequences " ) He had never handled a gun until he met Sarah , but killed to save her life on several occasions . He was her travelling companion , running around for her and sometimes using his credit card , provided by Nat , to sort out their transport . When Sarah and Josh boarded the Dauntless space tourism flight , a member of the Crimson Chapter had infiltrated the spacecraft , and attempted to kill Sarah . However , Josh shot and killed the agent , but not before receiving a fatal gunshot wound to the stomach . Josh used his dying words to ask for forgiveness from Sarah , for not revealing his identity as an undercover agent for the White Chapter beforehand . She did forgive him , and he died shortly after . ( AUDIO : " Dreamland " ) Josh was described by the vicar of Cloots Coombe as being stocky and dark - haired . ( AUDIO : " Comeback " ) Will Sullivan observed that his hair was long enough to wear in a ponytail . ( AUDIO : " Fatal Consequences " )