The plastic deformation behaviour of TiC particulate-reinforced aluminium composites (Al-TiCp) is investigated in this work using pure aluminium as the reference matrix material. Uniaxial tension and compression tests are carried out at 293 and 623 K and at two strain rates (3.7 x 10(-4) and 3.7 x 10(-3) s(-1)). It is found that in compression mode, yield strengths of up to 127 MPa are exhibited in composites containing 10 vol % TiC particulates, which are almost 4 times the yield strength of pure Al. In tension mode the yield strength does not exhibit any significant improvements (50 MPa) when compared with pure Al. Moreover, at 623 K relatively small reductions in the compressive yield strength are found suggesting that this property was rather insensitive to temperature for the temperatures considered in this work. Nevertheless, at 623 K increasing the rate of straining from 3.7 x 10(-4) s(-1) to 3.7 x 10(-3) s(-1) lowered the yield strength, particularly in 10 vol % TiCp-Al composites. The exhibited improvements in yield strength could not be explained by only considering prismatic dislocation punching at particulate-matrix interfaces as a result of thermal mismatch strain. The flow strength properties found in tension are significantly inferior to those found under compression. Apparently, thermal residual stresses (tensile in nature) coupled with thermal mismatch between matrix and reinforcement severely limit the strengthening in these composites. During plastic deformation, two stages of work hardening are identified in pure Al and a 10 vol % TiC, composite., by employing the modified version of the Hollomon equation (sigma = Ke(n) +/- Delta). In particular, the work hardening exponents found in pure Al shift from high to low values as the extent of plastic strain is increased while the opposite is true for the 10 vol % TiCp composite.