Basil Tozer

Career As a young man, Tozer worked as a journalist and was editor of the Galignani's Messenger newspaper in Paris. He served in the Royal Army Service Corps in France during World War I. After a world tour he joined the staff of the Daily Mail. He worked with Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet on several of his publications.

Tozer's best known work was The Horse in History, an exploration of the role of the horse throughout civilisation. It was described as pleasantly written "sketch of the varying fortunes of the horse through the centuries".

Hunting

Tozer was an avid huntsman but was concerned about unnecessary cruel activities he had observed on hunts. At first he wrote letters on the topic anonymously but later wrote an article under his own name with the title "The Abuse of Sport", published in The Fortnightly Review in 1906.

Between 1907 and 1935, Tozer authored many newspaper articles on hunting. In 1927, he was promoting drag hunting as a replacement for fox hunting. He authored a pamphlet Drag Hunting and Its Possibilities, published by the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports in 1935.

Personal life and death

Tozer married Beatrice Langley, the concert violinist. Beatrice was involved with the women's suffrage movement. They had two sons, Leonard and Philip.

Selected publications

Books Practical Hints On Shooting (1887) The Irony of Marriage (With an Introductory Note by C. W. Saleeby, 1908) The Horse in History (1908) Recollections of a Rolling Stone (1923) Confidence Crooks and Blackmailers (1930) Drag Hunting and Its Possibilities (1935)

Short stories "The Pioneers of Pike's Peak" (The Strand Magazine, 1897)

Hunting articles Will Drag-Hunting Oust Fox-Hunting? (1907) The Practice of Digging Foxes (1909) Hunting-Field Problems: How to Make the Most of a Horse (1910) Threat to Kill Foxes (1910) Tact in the Hunting-Field (1910) Hunting on a Small Income (1928)