Brian Tweedy: An Officer But Not a Gentleman

Abstract:Modern commentators on the Ulysses character Brian Tweedy question his stated military rank of Major and conclude either that Joyce intended this person to have posed as a former commissioned officer or that Tweedy's actual rank in the British Army is one of the novel's intractable enigmas, like "who was M'Intosh?" Shortly before publication of the complete novel, Joyce wrote to his Aunt Josephine that Major Malachi Powell was the model for the Tweedy character. Official records show that the British army commissioned Powell from the ranks, and, in retirement, the colony of South Australia commissioned him as a full-time militia officer. He left such colonial service with the honorary rank of Major in the militia's reserve. More importantly, the novel's narrative shows that "Old Tweedy" had to have held the Queen's commission. The life led by Tweedy and his daughter in Gibraltar and late-Victorian Dublin is incompatible with his being a non-commissioned officer, either a "Drum-Major" or warrant officer (Sergeant-Major or Bandmaster). Furthermore, many facets of Molly Bloom's character show that her father was more than a common soldier. Indeed, she has many of the unpleasant characteristics of stereotypical Victorian middle-class women of working-class origin. Hopefully, this essay answers conclusively the question of Brian Tweedy's army rank first posed in the late 1970s.