BRIGADIER C. E. WEIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 2

BRIGADIER C. E. WEIR

NOW A MAJOR-GENERAL

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE According to a statement by Major H. T. W. Nolan, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, which was published yesterday morning, Brigadier Cyril Ettrick Weir, formerly in command of the New Zealand Divisional Artillery in the Middle East, has been promoted to the rank of major-general, and is now commanding a British unit. Major Nolan was a member of a draft of 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force personnel which recently arrived in New Zealand, and has served with the headquarters of the Divisional Artillery. 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Major-general Weir, who was made a Commander of *the Order of the British Empire last month, and has also been awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, is an artillery officer who has won the admiration of a number of Allied commanders in this war. During General Freyberg’s absence from the front after being injured in an aeroplane accident he was temporarily in command of the 2nd New Zealand Division, with the rahk of major-general. Subsequently on the relinquishment of this post, he reverted to the rank of brigadier. Major-general Weir, whose promotion has been unusually rapid, is the youngest son of the late Mr and Mrs Cochrane Weir, of Pukehiki, Otago Peninsula. At 39 years of age he was one of the youngest brigadiers in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Entering the Otago Boys’ High School in 1919, he 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 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 Royal New Zealand Artillery. Major-general 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 lieutenaht»colonel as officer commanding the. third echelon. He served in Greece, Crete, Libya, and Tunisia. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier after the campaign in Greece, being the youngest officer to hold the 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. When Lieutenant-general Sir Bernard Freyberg visited Dunedin in 1943 he rnentioned that Brigadier Weir was doing “ a great job.”