Submitted by admin on April 23, 2009 - 00:05
WEIR, Sir Stephen Cyril Ettrick, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O. and Bar
(1904– ).
Ambassador to Thailand.
A new biography of Weir, Stephen Cyril Ettrick appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.
Stephen Cyril Ettrick Weir was born at Dunedin on 5 October 1904 and was educated at Otago Boys' High School. Going to England in the early 1920s he joined the Imperial Army, rising to command of the Royal Artillery in 1927, but returned to New Zealand in 1929. In the Second World War he commanded the New Zealand 25th Battery in 1939 and 6th Field Regiment in 1941–42. From 1944 to 1946 he was G.O.C. 46th British Infantry Division. After the war he was in command of Southern Military District till 1949, at the War Office in 1951, and back in New Zealand as Quartermaster-General, 1952–55. He became Chief of the General Staff and G.O.C. New Zealand Division, 1955–60, and in 1960 was Military Adviser to the New Zealand Government. In 1961 he was appointed New Zealand High Commissioner (now Ambassador) to Thailand and New Zealand Representative to SEATO. He was made a C.B. in 1945 and knighted in 1960.