Claude Tozer

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Claude Tozer Australia (AUS)

Batting style	Right handed batsman
Bowling type	-
First-class record
Matches	7
Runs scored	514
Batting average	46.72
100s/50s	1/5
Top score	103
Balls bowled	-
Wickets	-
Bowling average	-
5 wickets in innings	-
10 wickets in match	-
Best Bowling	-
Catches/Stumpings	4/0
First class debut: February 24, 1911 Last first class game: December 3, 1920 Source: [1]

Claude John Tozer (September 27, 1890 - December 21, 1920) was an Australian first-class cricketer who played for New South Wales. He was the nephew of Australian Test cricketer Percie Charlton.

A right handed batsman, Tozer juggled his early cricket career with medical studies which saw him serve with the Royal Australian Medical Corp at Gallipoli during World War One. Before the war, in which he also fought on the Western Front, Tozer played four first-class matches for New South Wales as a middle order batsman.^[1]

Tozer returned home to Australia as a major and resumed his duties with News South Wales, this time as an opening batsman. In 1919/20 he played his fifth first-class match, against Queensland at Brisbane and made innings of 51 and 103.^[2] He also made his Sheffield Shield debut that season, at the SCG against South Australia and scored 37 in the first innings before being run out.^[3] Tozer was by now working as a GP and had a practise in the North Shore.

His prolific 1920-21 season in grade cricket, which saw him make 452 runs in three matches earned him selection for an Australian XI to play against the touring MCC. Opening the batting, he made a pair of half centuries.^[4]

He was due to play as NSW captain in a match against Queensland on the 1st of January 1921 but on December 21 he was shot three times and killed by his mistress at her home in Sydney. The mistress, Dorothy Mort was found not guilty due to insanity but was committed to an asylum for life.^[5]