John Wallace Weir, medical practitioner, was the son of James Weir and his wife Margaret Wilson. He qualified as Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Edinburgh in 1880 and as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1886. He was licensed to practice in the Cape Colony on 22 September 1887. By 1893 he had settled at Engcobo in the Transkei. He was a member of both the Cape of Good Hope Branch of the British Medical Association and the [second] South African Medical Association. By 1897 he was visiting surgeon at the Emjanyana Leper Institution at Idutywa. During the first decade of the twentieth century he published several papers in the South African Medical Record: "Notes on leprosy in the native territories" (1904), "Notes on Kaffir medical practice" (1904), "Some thoughts on the leprosy controversy" (1907), and "Leprosy in South Africa - historical facts" (1909, in two parts).

In 1921 a letter by Weir on "The treatment of cutaneous anthrax" was published in The British Medical Journal. At that time he was still residing at Engcobo. By 1926 he was living in East London. He should not be confused with his contemporary James Wilson Weir, who was a merchant at King William's Town.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: John Wallace Weir. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/G5CJ-TBK/john-wallace-weir-1845-1929

Medical and pharmacy register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1893, 1907.

Medical, dental and pharmacy directory of South Africa, 1926/7.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Weir, John Wallace / Weir, Dr John W. / Weir, Dr J.W.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, Vol. NMC 34. [List of medical practitioners, etc. registered in the Cape of Good Hope on 31 December 1915].

South African medical directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal, December 1895, Vol. 3, p. 235, List of members [of the Cape of Good Hope Branch of the BMA]; January 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 240-242: South African Medical Association [list of members].

South African Medical Record, 1904-1909, Vol. 2, 5 and 7.

Weir, John W. The treatment of cutaneous anthrax. British Medical Journal, 12 November 1921, p. 815. Retrieved on 29 April 2021 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2338957/

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2026-03-05 11:42:26