Captain Anthony Sessle

Captain Anthony Sessle is a familiar figure on the golf links whose murder turns an apparently ordinary round of golf into a carefully engineered deception. His conspicuous blue coat helps the killer exploit other players’ expectations, while the contrast between his public, recognizable presence and the disguised figure who takes his place becomes central to Tommy Beresford’s explanation of the crime.

Identity and Background

Sessle is described as a well-known figure at the club and a regular early-morning golfer who practiced on the links. He lived in a small bungalow near the Windlesham road. His wife was away visiting when he was killed; the couple who ran the bungalow were in London for their customary Wednesday outing and returned on the late train, believing their master to be asleep in his room.

His bright-blue golf coat was a distinctive feature by which other players recognized him at a distance. That visibility, ordinarily a sign of familiarity, becomes a vulnerability: the disguise need only reproduce the coat and cap convincingly enough to stand in for Sessle when the witnesses cannot see the wearer’s face.

The Murder and Its Discovery

Just over three weeks before Tommy recounts the case, two club members on an early round found Sessle lying face down at the seventh tee. They suspected his identity even before turning him over, because he was a recognizable presence on the course. At first, his death seemed possibly attributable to a sudden illness, but a doctor’s examination established that he had been murdered and had been dead for at least twelve hours.

The investigation found a strand of fair hair in Sessle’s fingers and threads of flame-colored wool on a button of his blue coat. The clues appeared to point toward a young woman: a girl in a flame-colored coat and skirt had arrived at the station that evening, asked the way to Sessle’s house, and returned about two hours later looking agitated and asking about trains to London. A week after the killing, Doris Evans was arrested and charged. The case had attracted attention, but no motive had been apparent, and discussion of a tall woman in brown seen on the links had not established her identity.

The Last Round and the Disguise

Sessle’s last known game provided the setting for Tommy’s reconstruction. He had played with his friend and business partner, Mr. Hollaby, and other golfers. On the sixth and eighth holes, Sessle abruptly said the light was too poor and left by a narrow path toward the Windlesham road, a shortcut to his bungalow. Hollaby and the other players had seen him speaking to a woman in brown but could not see her face; they wondered what she had said to upset him.

Tommy’s explanation turns on the small turf shelter behind the sixth tee. Someone could wait there unseen, change clothes, and emerge in a different guise. Tuppence confirms the practical plausibility of the proposed transformation: a skirt could be worn over a man’s plus fours, with a brown sweater and a felt hat fitted with side curls creating the distant appearance of a woman. Removing those items and putting on a carried cap would restore the appearance of a male golfer. The woman seen on the course, Tommy proposes, was therefore a disguise rather than reliable evidence of a female assailant.

In Tommy’s account, the disguised killer approached Sessle and drew him along the path, away from the view of the other players. Sessle may have recognized the person as a man he knew and followed out of curiosity. The killer then murdered him, concealed his body in the furze bushes, and removed the blue coat. After shedding the skirt and hat, the murderer put on Sessle’s coat and cap and returned to the tee. The golfers behind saw the familiar clothing rather than the wearer’s face, and so accepted the returning figure as Sessle. Their later observation that the supposed Sessle played unlike himself becomes a telltale inconsistency: the player was not Sessle at all.

Investigation and Narrative Significance

The murder’s apparent clues—the woman in brown, the fair hair, and the flame-colored wool—encourage suspicion of Doris Evans, while the blue coat helps the killer manipulate the witnesses’ assumptions. Tommy’s reconstruction connects these details to a staged change of appearance and a carefully chosen blind spot on the course. It explains how a murder could occur during a round without the other golfers realizing that the person they believed to be Sessle had been replaced.

Sessle’s role in the case is defined by this substitution. His familiarity and distinctive coat make the deception possible, while the changed style of play supplies a clue that the visual likeness cannot erase. The narrative moves from an apparently straightforward accusation toward a causal reconstruction: the course’s shelter, paths, and concealed furze offer the opportunity; disguise and mistaken recognition provide the cover; and the difference between Sessle’s real play and the impostor’s performance exposes the fraud.