The Nuffield plot  to kidnap Lord Nuffield

The foiled 1938 plot to kidnap Lord Nuffield was so sensational that the Oxford Times described it as ‘more like a thriller’ than real life. Even the Judge presiding over the trial of the would-be kidnapper remarked that it put him in mind of pulp-fiction: the facts of this audacious plot bear out both assessments. What also became clear at the trial was that the plot could easily have ended in torture or murder but for the change of heart of one person involved.

Lord Nuffield
Lord Nuffield, born William Morris in 1877, was a renowned Oxford businessman and philanthropist. From a small business building and repairing bicycles he had built the Morris Motors company, which at one stage built roughly half the cars sold in Britain. Nuffield become one of the country’s richest men. In 1938, experienced blackmailer Patrick Boyle Tuellman, who was later tried under his alias John Bruce Thornton, decided Nuffield was a vulnerable target, concocted a ruthless kidnapping plot, and recruited an accomplice to help put it into action.

The plot
Posing as a journalist, Tuellman arranged a meeting with Lord Nuffield at 6pm on 28 May 1938. Tuellman drafted a letter to hand to Nuffield at the interview, which began:
“Read this carefully before passing any remark and do not show it to any other person.

1. I am packing two automatic pistols of a large calibre and will immediately shoot you through the guts if you attempt to raise alarm or suspicion.
2. You will ask me to come and see your Children’s Hospital
3. Cancel any appointments which you may have today
4. Walk out with me to my car and my chauffeur will do the rest. Do not on your way out attempt to make a run for it – it means instant death to you and anyone who attempts to interfere…”

Nuffield, bound and gagged, was to be driven to Pin Mill in Suffolk, where a hired yacht was waiting, equipped with a ghastly array of implements, including surgical instruments. These were to be used if necessary to ‘persuade’ Lord Nuffield to sign a letter of authorisation, which would allow Tuellman to collect £100,000 from Nuffield’s bank account.

The police informant
Unknown to Tuellman, however, the plan had developed a fatal flaw. On finding out the true nature and scale of the planned crime, the accomplice decided he wanted no part in it and went to the police. Now secretly working on police instructions, he went along with the plan as before so as not to arouse Teullman’s suspicions. Meanwhile Oxford City’s Chief Constable, Charles Fox, organised an ambush at Nuffield’s Cowley offices, persuading Nuffield (with some difficulty) to stay well away from the action.

A dramatic arrest
At 5.45 on the day of the meeting, the accomplice rang Fox, telling him Tuellman had instructed him to cancel the interview as he felt unwell. In a lightning change of plan, Fox sent a detachment of armed officers to surround Tuellman’s car- he was arrested without a shot being fired, but found to be armed with an unloaded Browning automatic pistol. A second handgun was found in the boot of the car (which had false plates) along with ammunition, a disguise kit and other documents to be used in the kidnap.

Trial and sentencing
Tuellman, alias Thornton, was brought before Birmingham Assizes later that year, and convicted. He was sentenced to seven years, and died soon after his release. Lord (later Viscount) Nuffield lived well into his eighties, having donated half his vast fortune to various causes in the course of his lifetime.

(Extract from Thames Valley Police - The Force Museum)