Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Frederic Tweed (1891 – 30 April 1940) was a British soldier and novelist. He was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers. He won the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and at the age of 26 was named the youngest

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

at the time. He became a political adviser to

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

from 1927 until Tweed's death from a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

. Tweed was primarily famous for his novels, among which were ''Blind Mouths'' and ''Rinehard''. The latter was turned into the successful 1933 film ''

Gabriel Over the White House ''Gabriel Over the White House'' is a 1933 American pre-Code political fantasy film starring Walter Huston as a genial but politically corrupt U.S. President who has a near-fatal automobile accident and comes under divine influence—specifical ...

'', directed by

Gregory LaCava Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 – March 1, 1952) was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including ''My Man Godfrey'' and ''Stage Door'', which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best ...

and starring Walter Huston. In the novel ''Rinehard'' and the film ''Gabriel Over the White House'', the character of Pendie Molloy, the President's secretary (played in the film by Karen Morley), is based on

Frances Stevenson Frances Lloyd George, Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (née Stevenson; 7 October 1888 – 5 December 1972) was the mistress, personal secretary, confidante and second wife of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Frances Louise Stevenson ...

, Lloyd George's secretary and

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...

, with whom Tweed also had an affair.

Works

*''Rinehard: A Melodrama of the Nineteen-Thirties'' (A. Barker, 1933) : US edition, ''Gabriel Over the White House: A Novel of the Presidency'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1933) *''Blind Mouths'' (A. Barker, 1934); also known as ''Hungry Mouths'' : US ed., ''Destiny's Man'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1935). Dust wrapper for first UK edition of ''Blind Mouths'' designed by

Margaret Macadam Margaret Macadam (1902–1991) was a British illustrator active in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923-24 she was a member of the Society of Women Artists and in 1925 she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools where a fellow student and future s ...

External links

* 1890 births 1940 deaths Lancashire Fusiliers officers British Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Military Cross British male novelists 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British male writers {{UK-novelist-stub

Works

Further reading

External links