page_title: Stanley Price Weir
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Stanley Price Weir / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Henry Galway, Governor of South Australia, presenting the D.S.O. to Colonel S. Price Weir D.S.O. V.D., commander 10th Battalion 1914 to 1916, at Keswick Barracks on Wednesday 15 January 1919. State Library of South Australia PRG 280/1/15/593
context_page_description: Brigadier General Stanley Price Weir, DSO, VD, JP was a public servant and Australian Army officer. During World War I, he commanded the 10th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force during the landing at Anzac Cove and the subsequent Gallipoli Campaign, and during the Battles of Pozières and Mouquet Farm in France.
  Weir returned to Australia at his own request in late 1916 at the age of 50, and in 1917 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was mentioned in dispatches for his performance at Pozières and Mouquet Farm. He went on to become the first South Australian Public Service Commissioner. He was given an honorary promotion to brigadier general on his retirement from the Australian Military Forces in 1921. Weir was retired as public service commissioner in 1931. In retirement he contributed to various benevolent and charitable organisations, and died in 1944.
context_section_description: Weir had two significant advantages in his return to a civilian career. Firstly, he was repatriated well before most servicemen and, secondly, South Australia had implemented a policy of preferment of returned servicemen for government employment. These circumstances helped him gain appointment as the first South Australian Public Service Commissioner in 1916. Weir was not suited to this role, being unable to navigate the competing personal and political agendas of senior public servants and politicians, and was soon sidelined. In 1925, legislative changes made it possible for the government to replace Weir, and this took place in 1930. In the last year-and-a-half before his retirement in 1931, Weir was the chairman of both the Central Board of Health and the Public Relief Board, excelling at the latter.
  On 8 June 1923, after many years of poor health, Weir's wife Rosa died. He married Lydia Maria Schrapel in 1926. Weir led an active retirement, contributing to several religious, charitable and welfare organisations and activities. These included the Norwood and Maylands Churches of Christ, Benevolent and Stranger's Friend Society, the Our Boys Institute (OBI), the Masonic Lodge, Cheer-Up Society, and YMCA. At various times he served as President of the Commonwealth Club, the Churches of Christ Union, the St. Peters Sub-Branch of the Returned and Services League, and the Cheer Up Society.
  Weir wrote the foreword for the history of the 10th Battalion, titled The Fighting 10th: A South Australian Centenary Souvenir of the 10th Battalion, AIF 1914–1919, which was written by a former member of the battalion, Cecil Lock, and published in 1936. In 1943, Weir was badly injured in a car accident while returning from an OBI camp at Victor Harbor. It was believed that his injuries in the accident contributed to his death on 14 November 1944. Weir was survived by his wife Lydia, and his son Lionel and daughter Beryl from his first marriage. His brother, Harrison Weir, was the State Government Printer. Weir was buried in West Terrace Cemetery.
caption: Weir (left foreground) receiving the Distinguished Service Order from the Governor of South Australia, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Galway, at Keswick Barracks on 15 January 1919
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