John ("Jim") Weir FRSE FGS (1896 – 1978) was a 20th-century Scottish geologist and

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Life

Weir was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1896 and was educated at Woodside Secondary School. He served in the

51st Highland Division The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as ...

in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was wounded in action three times and invalided out of the army in 1918. His main actions and wounds were received at

High Wood The Attacks on High Wood, near Bazentin le Petit in the Somme ''département'' of northern France, took place between the British Fourth Army and the German 1st Army during the Battle of the Somme. After the Battle of Bazentin Ridge on 14 July ...

, Arras and the main German counter-attack of 1918. His lungs were damaged by a gas attack in the latter. He studied Science at

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

specialising in geology and mining, graduating MA in 1920 and gaining his first doctorate (PhD) in 1925. He began as a Demonstrator in the university in 1921 and became a Lecturer in Palaeontology in 1923. In 1934 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were

Edward Battersby Bailey Sir Edward Battersby Bailey FRS FRSE MC CB LLD (1 July 1881 – 19 March 1965) was an English geologist. Life Bailey was born in Marden, Kent, the son of Dr James Battersby Bailey and Louise Florence Carr. He was educated at Kendal grammar ...

George Tyrrell George Tyrrell (6 February 1861 – 15 July 1909) was an Anglo-Irish Catholic priest and a leading modernist theologian and scholar. A convert from Anglicanism, Tyrrell joined the Jesuit order in 1880. His attempts to adapt Catholic theology ...

, Sir

John Graham Kerr Sir John Graham Kerr (18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957), known to his friends as Graham Kerr, was a British embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP). He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes. He was involv ...

, John Walton and

John Pringle John Pringle may refer to: *John Pringle, Lord Haining (c. 1674–1754), Scottish landowner, judge and politician, shire commissioner for Selkirk 1702–07, MP for Selkirkshire 1708–29, Lord of Session *Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet (1707–1782) ...

. In 1941 he succeeded Arthur Trueman as President of the Glasgow Geological Society. He was succeeded in turn in 1944 by Benjamin Barrett. He was awarded the

Murchison Fund The Murchison Fund is an award given by the Geological Society of London to researchers under the age of 40 who have contributed substantially to the study of hard rock and tectonic geology. It is named in honour of Prof. Roderick Impey Murchison. ...

by the Geological Society for 1941. In 1949 he began lecturing in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

instead of Palaeontology. He retired 1962. He died on 29 January 1978.

Family

He was father to John Anthony Weir (1932-2002) also a geologist.

Publications

*''Jurassic Fossils from Jubaland, East Africa'' (1929) *''Shells of the Coal Measures'' (1950)

References

1896 births 1978 deaths Scientists from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Glasgow Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{Scotland-scientist-stub