Isidore Israel Kozminsky was born on 25th October 1870 into a Prussian Jewish family who had emigrated to Australia via London a few years before his birth. His parents were Simon Kozminsky (3 Jul 1835, Raszkow, Prussia, d. 3 Jul 1916, Melbourne) and Emma Esther Solomon (1848 in London, d. 27 Nov 1924, Melbourne Vic). In 1851 the founded jewelry shop under their name that still exists to this day.
Kozminsky was a well-known Jewish occult and esoteric author, reputed to have been a leading member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. His works reveal a very broad knowledge of esoteric tradition and astrological knowledge. During his life Kozminsky wrote several valuable books on astrology and numerology.
Kozminsky, along with his wife and two children moved from Australia to London around 1935, presumably because London had established itself as the centre of esoteric and occult tradition by that time and though Kozminsky had a doctorate in archaeology and owned a well established jewelry business. It was esoteric tradition that became his lifelong passion.
In 1917 he published his work on the zodiac degrees in a book named ‘Zodiacal Symbology and its Planetary Power’; which is an invaluable tool for interpreting natal charts in greater depth.
At a time, perhaps after marriage, he changed his name to Francis Coton, the latter seems to be his mother’s maiden name. At least one of his children, Kenneth, had this name as surname. In his publications, he retained his previous name.
Informations on his death are contradictory. According to one version he died in London in 1940 aged 70 after being knocked down an escalator on the London underground. A second version states, he died after a V1 missile attack in London 1944, maybe in a bomb shelter after pneumonia.