The accident plots to kill Tommy Bassington-ffrench

The accident plots to kill Tommy Bassington-ffrench were two failed attempts by Roger Bassington-ffrench to remove Tommy from the way. Revealed in Roger’s retrospective confession, they show that the apparent accidents surrounding the Bassington-ffrench family were part of a deliberate plan of violence, even though the account gives no particulars of either incident.

Purpose and Method

Roger says that Henry Bassington-ffrench and Tommy both had to be got out of the way. He describes having had bad luck over Tommy because two carefully arranged accidents went wrong. The plural attempts make clear that Tommy was a repeated target, while the word accident served as the intended cover for the violence. Roger does not explain where or when either attempt occurred, what happened in them, or how Tommy escaped harm.

Place in the Wider Scheme

The attempts against Tommy belonged to a broader effort to remove the Bassington-ffrench heirs. After the plots against Tommy failed, Roger turned to Henry Bassington-ffrench, whom he introduced to morphia and intended to have killed at the Grange under the appearance of suicide or overdose. The contrast is telling: Roger acknowledged failure with Tommy, then pursued a different method against Henry, designed to distance himself from the killing.

Consequences and Significance

The confession recasts the accidents as planned attacks rather than misfortune. It also shows the limits of Roger’s control: his scheme depended on deaths being made to look natural, but the attempts on Tommy did not achieve their purpose. Later, Bobby Jones’s intervention made matters more difficult for Moira Nicholson, who went to the cottage. The account connects that pressure to the criminal operation without specifying Moira’s part in the earlier accidents. Together, the failed attempts and the subsequent plan against Henry reveal a campaign that adapted when one method did not succeed.