The story of Claude Tozer is a cautionary tale of fate, misjudgement and wasted talent buried in the minutiae of Australian cricket history. Tozer, an opening batsman of impeccable judgement and obvious skill, recorded a first-class average of just under 47 in an era where anything in the 40s was considered freakishly high – yet his career spanned just seven matches, truncated by Tozer’s dedication to his study and then by his service in World War One.

 

Just when these distractions seemed gone and a Test berth was in Tozer’s sights, his life was ended by three bullets fired by a Sydney socialite whose affections Tozer had spurned – a tragic waste both of human life and cricketing talent.

 

Tozer was born in 1890 and attended Shore Grammar in Sydney’s north, where he excelled in his studies, as well as in tennis and cricket. At the age of 18 he struck 140 out of his school’s 311 against a Sydney Grammar team, containing six future first-class players that had earlier recorded a first-innings tally of 916. Two years later, while studying medicine and playing for Sydney University’s first XI, Tozer recorded the most runs in Sydney grade cricket (794 at 72.18). He repeated the feat in 1913-14 (872 runs at 76.55).

 

Despite his imperious numbers Tozer played only one first-class game in this time, a 1911 tour match against South Africa for a NSW team, captained by Victor Trumper. Tozer made only 2 and 37 but his prolific scoring in grade cricket attracted several invitations from the NSW selectors. Tozer rebuffed these, however, as state games would require time and travel that would interrupt his medical studies.

 

Just as his graduation in 1914 freed Tozer for more representative cricket, the Great War erupted and the young doctor immediately enlisted in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. He served in Gallipoli and the Western Front, rose to the rank of major and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order – but he also contracted typhoid fever, malaria and numerous shrapnel wounds.

 

Tozer served for the duration of the war, returning to Australia in 1918 and to first-class cricket the following year, in a non-Sheffield Shield match against Queensland in Brisbane. He scored a solid 53 in the first innings then, opening the batting with ‘Monty’ Noble, he scythed an entertaining 103 in the second.

 

When Tozer’s first three grade innings for the 1920-21 season yielded an amazing 452 runs he was selected in the Australian XI to play the touring Englishmen in Brisbane in early December. Tozer was not overawed by presence of luminaries like Warwick Armstrong, Charlie Macartney, Herbert Collins and Alan Kippax – in fact he outshone many of them, recording solid half-centuries in both innings (51 and 53).

 

Though the batting places for the home Tests were essentially filled, Tozer was now one of the next in line. More importantly he seemed to have booked a berth with the following year’s Ashes touring squad. The NSW board named him captain of the state team for a match against Queensland, starting New Year’s Day, 1921. With his star now clearly on the rise, Dr. Tozer made plans for a relaxing week before Christmas by calling on patients, attending the Sydney Test and lunching with fellow cricketers, and perhaps a visit to the theatre with his young fiancée.

 

Ironically, it was to be the first of these plans that would be the end of Claude John Tozer. While calling at her Lindfield home, Tozer was murdered by Dorothy Mort, who he had been treating for depression and suicidal tendencies for several months. A court later heard that Mort shot Tozer in the back of the head as he sat on her sofa; then again above the left ear and in the region of the heart. His body was discovered by a servant an hour or two afterwards, the Colt pistol that killed him lying near his right thigh. Mrs Mort was located in her bedroom, unconscious from taking poison.

 

When the news was released two days later, Sydney was aghast at the murder of its state captain-elect, who the Sydney Morning Herald’s first report described as “the famous cricketer”. Flags at the SCG were flown at half-mast and members of the Australian team, halfway through the first Test, played in black armbands.

 

But the paucity of details about how and why Tozer was gunned down also fuelled gossip, much of it focusing on Mort – who was young, attractive, but also married and a mother of two young children. Rumours abounded of incriminating letters found at the scene that suggested Tozer and Mort were more than doctor and patient; even the normally staid Herald speculated on December 23 that Tozer’s visit to the Mort’s home was only “allegedly professional”.

 

The facts were not revealed until Dorothy Mort’s trial in March 1921, an event that drew wide coverage in scandal-sheets such as the Melbourne Truth, which published an uncensored police photograph of the deceased Tozer as he was found on Mort’s sofa. Newspapers also printed the content of the pair’s correspondence, such as this one written by Tozer and found near his body:

 

 

The court observed that Tozer’s relationship with Mort seemed passionate and highly charged – in other notes the cricketer spoke of “a deep-seated fountain of emotion” and likened his affections for Mort to a “sleeping volcano” – however he was unwilling to enter into a sexual relationship with her. It was even speculated that Tozer’s affections may well have been staged: an unorthodox attempt to rectify Mort’s continual depression.

 

Whatever his motives, the purpose of Tozer’s visit to Mort on the day of his murder was to end their dalliance and clear his conscience. Despite his knowledge of Mort’s instability and mental illness, Tozer failed to anticipate her response. Mort had already written to another that “I love and worship Claude to the exclusion of everything” and talked of suicide if he rejected her advances. A policeman testified at her trial that Mort admitted killing Tozer because “if I cannot have him, then no other woman shall.”

 

The trial found Dorothy Mort not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, and she was detained in an asylum until her death in the 1940s. Claude Tozer was buried at Waverley Cemetery on December 23, 1921 – the day after the Australian Test team, many of whom he counted as friends, defeated England by 377 runs. The service was attended by cricketers, officials and members of Sydney’s elite. The officiating reverend said of Tozer: “If character and sterling worth were things to be appreciated in life, then this man counted high.”

 

Claude Tozer – first-class cricketer, soldier, doctor – seemed to indeed have these qualities and might well have elevated himself to the legendary pantheon of 1920s cricket, joining names we still talk about eight decades later. Instead he died swiftly and unexpectedly at the hands of a deranged woman, the victim of a rare but fatal misjudgement.