John Weir (physician)

Sir John Weir GCVO (19 October 1879 – 17 April 1971), was a Scottish doctor who served as Physician Royal to several twentieth century monarchs.

Born in the town of Paisley, in Renfrewshire, Scotland, Dr Weir was to become Physician Royal to King George V (reigned 1910–36; Weir his physician from 1918), King Edward VIII (reigned 1936), King George VI (reigned 1936–52), Queen Elizabeth II (physician 1952–68), and King Haakon VII (1872–1957) of Norway, whose wife Maud (1869–1938) was the youngest daughter of King Edward VII (1841–1910).

Weir attended Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, a school noted for its emphasis on science. He received his medical education first at Glasgow University MB ChB 1907, and then on a sabbatical year in Chicago under the tutelage of Dr James Tyler Kent of Hering Medical College during 1908-9, along with Drs Harold Fergie Woods (1883–1961) and Douglas Borland (1885–1961).

He returned to the London Homeopathic Hospital as Consultant Physician in 1910, and was appointed the Compton-Burnett Professor of Materia Medica in 1911. He rose to become President of the Faculty of Homeopathy in 1923.

Weir reputedly first learned of homeopathy through his contact with Dr Robert Gibson Miller (1862–1919) head of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, who had an important influence on the future Physician Royal, who he treated for boils and converted to homeopathy [Bodman, 1971]. "It was Dr Gibson Miller who advised Sir John Weir to go to the United States." [Stewart, 1967, p. 260] This influence tended to be passed on: Dr Douglas Gibson (1888–1977) “became interested in homeopathy in 1936 through a meeting with Sir John Weir,” [Gibson obit, 1977, 225].

He spoke on homeopathy before the Royal Society of Medicine in 1932, and was knighted by King George V that same year. The renovated Manchester Homoeopathic Institute and Dispensary was opened in Oxford Street by Sir John Weir in May 1939. Weir said in an “address: homeopathy…is no religion, no sect, no fad, no humbug…remedies do not act directly on disease; they merely stimulate the vital reactions of the patient, and this causes him to cure himself.” [Sir John Weir, 1931, 200-201] Having advanced through all levels of the Royal Victorian Order he was, as a rare distinction, awarded the Royal Victorian Chain in 1947, possibly as a mark of the medical care he gave to the ailing King George VI.

• Homeopathy and its Importance in Treatment of Chronic Disease, (1915)
• The Trend of Modern Medicine, (1922)
• The Science and Art of Homeopathy, British Homeopathic Journal (1925)
• The Present Day Attitude of the Medical Profession Towards Homeopathy, British Homeopathic Journal XVI, 1926, p. 212ff
• Homeopathy: a System of Therapeutics (1928)
• "The Hahnemann Convalescent Home, Bournemouth", British Homeopathic Journal 20, 1931, 200-201
• Homeopathy: An Explanation of its Principles (1932)
• "British Homeopathy During the Last 100 Years, British Homeopathic Journal 23, 1932: II, pp. 603–5
• "Samuel Hahnemann and his Influence on Medical Thought", Trans. Roy. Soc. Med., (1933)
• Hahnemann on Homeopathic Philosophy (1935)