RAPID PROMOTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25280, 17 July 1943, Page 4

RAPID PROMOTION

OTAGO’S YOUNGEST BRIGADIER FINE RECORD OF SERVICE The honour of being the youngest brigadier in the 2nd N.Z.E.F. belongs to Brigadier C. E. Weir. He is one of five brigadiers who were born in Otago, and, in addition to these, two other senior officers, Lieutenant-gen-eral E. Puttick and Major-general H. E. Barrowclough, have had a close association with this , province—Lieu-tenant-general Puttick as a member of the New -Zealand Staff Corps and Major-general Barrowclough as city solicitor while he was in practice in Dunedin. The brigadiers who were born in ■ Otago were Brigadiers L. M. Inglis, A. S. Falconer, P. Ardagh, R. S. Park and C. E. Weir. Brigadier Inglis holds the rank of temporary major-general and is acting in command of the New Zealand Division in the Middle East, Brigadier Falconer has returned to New Zealand. Brigadier Ardagh is deputy-director of medical services to an army corps in the Middle East, and Brigadier Park is military liaison officer and 0.C., 2nd N.Z.E.F., in the United Kingdom. To this list may be added the name of Temporary Brigadier L. Hunt, who was born in Christchurch but spent a great part of his life in Otago. Brigadier Weir, whose promotion has been unusually rapid, is the youngest son of the late Mr and Mrs Cochrane

Weir, of Pukehiki, Otago Peninsula, and is 38 years of age. Four of his brothers served in the Great War. They were Sergeant Gerald. Weir (of Wellington), Corporal W. Weir (who was killed in action in France), Private Robert Weir, (who is a wellknown Ayrshire breeder at Seaward Downs), and Private N. A. Weir (Dunedin).. Entering the Otago Boys’ High School in 1919, Brigadier Weir matriculated' and left school in 1921. He was platoon commander in B Company of the school cadets in 1921, and won a shooting trophy in the same year. He was a member of the school Rugby fifteen. In 1922 he was chosen as one of the three cadets to go to England for training for the New Zealand Staff Corps, and after spending several years at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich he returned to New Zealand to join the R.N.Z.A. Brigadier Weir was then the youngest officer attached to the Staff Corps: He was stationed in turn at Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, and left New Zealand with the rank of lieu-tenant-colonel as officer, commanding the third echelon. He served in Greece, Crete, Libya, and Tunisia, and at the latest advice he was back with the New Zealand Division at its base camp. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier after the campaign in Greece, being the youngest officer to hold that rank ‘in the New Zealand forces. .He was awarded the D.S.O. for his part in the campaign in Greece, and during the Libyan campaign was awarded the bar to the D.S.O. He is now in command of the New Zealand Artillery in the Middle East. When Lieutenant-general Sir Bernard Freyberg visited Dunedin recently he mentioned that Brigadier Weir was doing “a great job.” While he was stationed at Wellington Brigadier Weir played Rugby in the Wellington Football Club’s senior fifteen. His brother, Gerald, who lost an arm in the Great War, was club captain of this club for many years, and Brigadier Weir subsequently occupied a similar position.- ’ Brigadier Weir’s wife is resident in Auckland, and they have one son, Colin, who is four years of age.