CLAUDE TOZER. THE CENTENARY OF HIS TRAGIC DEATH
On Friday 17 December 1920, the 1st Test between Australia and England commenced at the SCG.
On Monday 20 December, Claude Tozer sat in the Members’ Stand with some cricketing friends watching as Australia built up an unassailable lead of 658.
Tozer was a staid 30 year old suburban doctor. But he was also a decorated war hero and a promising NSW cricketer who was perhaps also on the verge of selection in the Australian Test team. He had scored 51 and 53 for an Australian XI against the English touring side in Brisbane earlier in December and he had been named as captain of NSW for the game against Queensland in the new year. The demands of his fledgling medical practice had limited his availability this season but in 1st Grade for Gordon his form had been irresistible. 211 (against University) was followed by 131, 110 and 37. Before the War, after a glittering career at the Shore School, he had been one of Sydney University’s most respected 1st Grade cricketers. 2083 runs at 52, including 842 runs in the Premiership side of 1913-14. He had, however, played his last game of cricket.
On Tuesday 21 December, Tozer parked his car in Tryon Road Lindfield and walked to the house known as ‘Inglebrae’, the home of Harold and Dorothy Mort and their family. Harold, a civil engineer, was at work. Dorothy was at home with the maid and two children. She was agitated, irrational, distracted but she had asked Dr Tozer to visit her. He had been reluctant to continue their professional relationship of doctor/patient and their physical relationship. Mrs Mort asked Tozer to wait in the drawing room where she had hidden a recently purchased pistol. She entered the room, sat next to Tozer on the couch, passed him a photo of herself inscribed with “…from the woman you swore you loved…” and fired a single bullet into his head.
On Wednesday 22 December, the Australian team took to the field at the SCG wearing black armbands.
It was not the first time that cricketers had worn black armbands for Dr Tozer. In October 1915, a rumour swept around Sydney that Captain Tozer had been killed by a Turkish bullet at Gallipoli. He survived Gallipoli and survived awful wounds on the Western Front in 1917. But he could not escape a bullet fired by a distraught housewife on the morning of 21 December 1921, 100 years ago today.
When the Club held a dinner in 1977 to honour those who had played for Sydney University in the early seasons of the 20th century, various names flew in and out of conversations as distant memories were brought to life again. When Tozer’s name was mentioned, however, the octogenarians fell unusually quiet, subdued, reserved, not willing to say too much. Some had played with him; some against him; some had served with him in the Great War. They respected him, but…in their minds, his name was forever associated with a scandal. He was an unmarried doctor carrying on an affair with a married woman who was his patient! A doctor murdered by his patient!
The full story has now been told. In particular, in Bonnell and Rodgers, ‘Golden Blues’ pp 109-116, a biography predominantly written by Max Bonnell. Then there is Greg Growden’s book ‘Bowled By A Bullet: The Tragic Life of Claude Tozer.’
What happened to Mrs Mort?
Read the books!
CJ Tozer:
Shore 1st XI 1905-09. 47-6-261-1909-46.50
1st Grade (University, Sydney, Gordon) 1909-20. 78-13-211-3164-48.67
1st class 1910-20. 12-1-103-514-46.72
James Rodgers