Ethel Brilliana Tweedie

Tweedie worked between 1862 and 1940 across photographer, painter, biographer, writer and travel writer. This article rests on 1 catalogued photograph, 27 published texts and 3 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Ethel Brilliana Tweedie • Born — 1 January 1862 • Birthplace — London, England • Birth Name — Ethel Brilliana Harley • Died — 15 April 1940 • Place of death — London, England • Known for — travel books • Occupation — author

Ethel Tweedie was born 1 January 1862 in London, the daughter of George Harley F.R.S. (of Harley Street) and Emma Jessie (Muspratt) Harley, into an early life of wealth and privilege. Her siblings included a sister (Olga) and three brothers (Edward Vaughan Berkeley Harley, Vernon De V. and Harold S.), She was named by her father for a famous relative, Lady Brilliana Harley (wife of Sir Robert Harley of Brampton Bryan). She was educated at Queen's College, London, and abroad in Germany. In 1886 she visited Iceland on holiday with her brother Vaughan B. Harley, her future husband Alexander (Alec) Leslie Tweedie, a woman friend, and one other man. At the suggestion of her father, she kept a journal of her travels and published it afterwards as her first book, A Girl's Ride in Iceland in 1895 (even including an appendix on Icelandic geysers by her father). She married Alexander Tweedie two years later on 1 January 1887. In 1893, following a telegram warning of the sudden serious illness of her brother Vaughan in Christiania, Norway she and her sister travelled to see him. She returned to Norway again within two years, then later published her second book A Winter Jaunt to Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others outlining her travel experiences and meetings with a number of famous people while abroad. Then, tragically, her whole life changed in the early summer of 1896 with the sudden death of her husband. She never remarried. In 1897, still upset and stunned by his death, she agreed to accompany her sister and a Finnish companion, Frau von Lilly, on a trip abroad to Finland. During that time she gathered material that eventually made its way into a third book, Through Finland in Carts, published later in 1898 and beginning her career as a popular writer.

• Illustration — When First A Widow - Ethel Tweedie shortly after the death of her husband • Illustration — Home of Mrs Alec Tweedie, 30 York Terrance, London, NW On 1 January 1887 she married Alexander Leslie Tweedie, a marine insurance broker born in India, and heir to a considerable fortune. They lived happily and well, in modest luxury, and had two sons, Harley Alexander Tweedie (6 May 1888 – 1926) and Leslie Kinloch Tweedie (11 January 1890 – 17 January 1916). Her husband died suddenly and unexpectedly at their home in Aldburgh, Suffolk nine years later, 25 May 1896, killed by the shock and responsibilities of financial disaster following the catastrophic failure of his marine insurance syndicate (caused by unforeseen British Admiralty court findings in the case of the ship the Benwell Tower which ruined both Alexander and his brother George Straton Tweedie, and a third partner Frederick Stumore). Her husband left her with no settlement. A few weeks later her father also died suddenly, leaving her nothing of his estate. She was left essentially destitute, with two young boys to raise. With no capital to draw on and no other means of income she turned to travel writing, relying on her writing skills and publishing contacts made during earlier, happier times. She wrote for the popular press in London when possible. She wrote books based on her journeys, including detailed and fascinating portraits of celebrities she met abroad. She travelled widely and wrote of peoples in lands that were not usual British or European holiday destinations. She continued to write and publish even after her boys reached their majority and moved away. Her youngest son Second Lieutenant Leslie Kinloch Tweedie, Royal Field Artillery was later killed in the First World War. Her eldest son Squadron Leader Harley Alexander Tweedie and Flight Lieutenant Stanley Harry Wallage were killed when their Airco DH.9A crashed at Amman, Transjordan. She settled into a life of international travel and reflection, and eventually became a very successful travel writer. When she was at home in her flat in Devonshire House, Mayfair, London, she hosted popular weekly receptions that brought together important people of her era and many international travellers. She continued an earlier tradition begun when she married: when she and her husband hosted luncheons or dinner parties, she encouraged guests to append an autograph, a sketch or a comment onto what evolved into a series of signature table-cloths. "Ethel ‘conceived the idea of coaxing the many delightful men and women of note who dined with us to pencil their signatures upon the table slips.’ She then embroidered over the signatures, doodles and sketches, with brilliant red thread.". She eventually published a journal describing many of those receptions, including a compendium of photographs of the signature table-cloths, as My Table Cloths; A Few Reminiscences. In addition to sketching and painting, her wide range of interests included embroidery and textiles: she even bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum in February 1927 some fine examples of English silks, laces and needlework acquired in her travels. She resided in her flat in Devonshire House, London, and continued to write and publish until only a few years before her death in London, 15 April 1940, aged 78. Following her death, several other items including two icons were bequeathed in 1940 to the Victoria and Albert Museum by her estate.

• A Girl's Ride In Iceland (1889) • The Oberammergau Passion Play (1890) • A Winter Jaunt To Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others (1894) • Wilton, Q.C.; Or, Life in a Highland Shooting-Box (1895) • Danish versus English Butter-Making (1895) • Through Finland In Carts (1898) • The First College Open To Women: Queens College, London: Memories and Records of Work Done, 1848–1898 (1898) • George Harley, F.R.S.; or, The Life of a London Physician (1899) • Mexico As I Saw It (1901) • Behind The Footlights (1904) • Sunny Sicily: Its Rustics and Its Ruins (1904) • Porfirio Diaz: Seven Times President of Mexico (1906) • The Maker Of Modern Mexico Porfirio Diaz (1906) • Hyde Park: Its History And Romance (1908) • Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life (1912) • America As I Saw It; Or, America Revisited (1913) • Busy Days: A Birthday Book (1913) • Women the World Over: A Sketch Both Light and Gay, Perchance Both Dull and Stupid (1914) • My Table-Cloths; A Few Reminiscences (1916) • Mexico: From Diaz To The Kaiser (1917) • Women And Soldiers (1918) • A Woman On Four Battle-Fronts (1919) • Mainly East (In Prose – Perhaps Prosey) (1922) • An Adventurous Journey: Russia -- Siberia -- China (1926) • Me and Mine: A Medley Of Thoughts And Memories (1932) • Cremation the World Around (1932) • Manchuria, Japan and China: water colour drawings by Mrs. Alec-Tweedie (1932) • Tight Corners of My Adventurous Life (1933) • My Legacy Cruise (the Peak Year of My Life) (1936) • The Preface to Prescott's History of Mexico (?) • A Chat With Dr. Nansen (?)

• Women and War Economy (April 1916, The English Review Volume XXII No 4)

Ethel Brilliana Tweedie was born on 1 January 1862 in London. Tweedie held the nationality of United Kingdom and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Tweedie was educated at Queen's College London. Recorded father: George Harley. Tweedie worked as photographer, painter, biographer and writer, and the authority record catalogues a further 1 occupations under the same name, among them travel writer. Tweedie worked in English.

• The Tweedie Archive -- This website once hosted much detailed information on Tweedie (Tweedy) genealogy. Unfortunately that website is no longer functioning but much of the information is still available via the web archive "Way Back Machine" (see next entry). • The Wayback Machine -- The website is a partial recreation of the original 'Tweedie Archive' site. See especially this dated list of main events in Ethel's life. It cites many lesser publications from the popular press, including quite a few from The Times. • Hanson Auctioneers -- The website includes an undated photograph of Mrs. Tweedie in later years, as well as information on an estate sale of her possessions. Recent changes to the website have removed an earlier photograph and background information on Mrs. Tweedie, but much of the information is still available via the web archive "Way Back Machine". • NORA (the Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research) [Vol. 17, No. 4, 273-288, December 2009] -- The organization published an interesting study of her travels in the North in "Europe's Northern Periphery and the Future of Women in the Travel Narratives of Ethel Tweedie". • Guess who’s coming to dinner? Ethel Tweedie’s celebrity table-cloths —A very interesting side note on the practice of "signature table-cloths" and some of the properties that Ethel bequeathed to New Zealand.