William Weir

William Douglas Weir, 1st Viscount Weir GCB (1877 - 1959) was a Scottish industrialist born in Glasgow.

During World War I he converted his factories to produce explosive shells, and in 1918 he became Minister of Munitions.

It was during the First world War that William Douglas Weir rose to national prominence. He had come to the head of the family engineering business some time between 1910 and 1912 but it was during the war that he first attracted the attention of the government as a brilliantly successful manager. Weir was appointed Scottish Director of Munitions in 1915 and was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the 'dilution scheme' on Clydeside. In 1915 he was appointed Controller of Aeronautical Supplies at the Ministry of Munitions in London and in 1918 he became Secretary of State for Air in Lloyd George's cabinet and was responsible for combining the naval and army air services into the Royal Air Force.^[1]

He was made a Knight in 1917. In 1918 he became President of the Air Council and raised to the peerage as Baron Weir. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in the same year.

In 1925 Weir headed a government committee to plan the rationalisation of the United Kingdom's electrical power industry, and his conclusions led to the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 and the creation of the National Grid.

In 1938 he was created Viscount Weir of Eastwood.

See Also

• Edmund Talbot

Resources

• Letter written by Sir William Weir to Sir Robert Horne in relation to establishment of anti-Bolshevik organisation. Dated 14 August 1919.
• Letter signed by Lord Edmund Talbot MP and Capt Hon F E Guest MP and addressed to Lord Weir, dated 19 August 1919.
• Letter from the Reconstruction Society to Lord Weir, 12 September 1919.

Notes

^ Glasgow Digital Library Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932, Key political figures of the Red Clydeside period, William Weir accessed February 2007.