Private Samuel Hanna Weir
Number: 9594
Company: 54th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 11 January 1900
Place: Belfast
Age: 22 years (stated on first enlistment). (Born 6 February 1875 in North Street, Newry, County Down.)
Trade or calling: Saddler
Place of birth: In the Parish of Newry, in or near the Town of Newry, in County Down
Family: Single. Father Thomas Weir, saddler, mother Annie Weir (nee Hanna), of 30 Water Street, Newry.
Previous military service: 20th Battery, Field Artillery, discharge by purchase
Description: Height 5' 4 1/4". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown/ light brown. Scar left thumb./ Scar left neck.
Religion: Church of England
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900
Date home: 8 June 1901
Actions:
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal, King's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, 1901, 1902 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 15 June 1901
Place: Belfast
Reason for discharge: The termination of his engagement
Weir was among the 400 men of the 13th Battalion captured by Boer forces at Lindley at the end of May 1900. He was released on 30 August with most of the other members of the battalion when the British captured Nooitgedacht.
On 15 October 1901 at Newry, Weir re-enlisted as Private No.9594 in the 116th (Sharpshooters) Company, 25th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He was soon after given the rank of Saddler. He embarked for South Africa on 9 November 1901. On 23 June 1902 at Elandsfontein he was discharged at his own request.
On 5 March 1903 in Johannesburg he married Barbara Gibb. The couple later lived in Scotland, where Samuel worked as a journeyman saddler, then in the postal service. Around the time of his father's death in 1908 they moved to Newry.
Weir died from complications during eye surgery in the Ulster Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Belfast, on 19 July 1910. The cause of death was recorded as "African blood disease 6 years causing septic thrombosis of brain and eyes 3 days".
The Newry Reporter, 21 July 1910
Image of Weir from the Belfast Evening Telegraph, 4 July 1900.
This page last updated 31 March 2025.