50 Explain the names "M" & "Q" (James Bond)
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This article is from the James Bond FAQ, by Michael Reed reed55@core.com with numerous contributions by others.
50 Explain the names "M" & "Q" (James Bond)
When Mansfield Cumming was head of the real SIS he would sign documents he
finished reading with a single letter "C". His replacement continued using
"C" as a *title* though it had no bearing on his name. Fleming could have,
one easily surmises, borrowed this fact for his creation. Fleming did name
the character Admiral Sir Miles Messervy (though the name did not appear
until "Golden Gun") but in keeping with the real C, it holds that any
replacement would continue using M. It cannot be conclusively stated that
Fleming didn't just borrow the title from the way he actually addressed his
mother or that it is a coincidence that the female M is named Barbara
Mawdsley.
Q Branch is the Quartermaster Branch, the supplier of weapons and protective
devices for the Double-O section. The head of the Branch, from the novel
"Doctor No", is Major Boothroyd, dubbed the "Armourer". (A real man,
Geoffrey Boothroyd, was a weapons expert who convinced Fleming that Bond
should use a Walther instead of a Beretta, but the fictional character is
never called "Geoffrey".) The first EON Bond film of the same name also uses
the Major's real surname. Peter Burton played him, succeeded afterward by
Desmond Llewelyn, who was also called Boothroyd in "The Spy Who Loved Me".
Nicknamed the "Armourer" at first, the James Bond of the movies began using
the Branch's first letter as a shorter moniker for Boothroyd. That is Q.
Llewelyn died tragically in December 1999. John Cleese, hired before his
death as an eventual replacement, was called both "Quartermaster" and "Q" in
"Die Another Day". His character's real name is unknown.
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