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Jock Weir

Scottish footballer (1923-2003)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ10497024
Source-derived summary

John Britton Weir (20 October 1923 – 7 January 2003) was a Scottish professional football player, most notable for scoring a hat-trick for Celtic on the final day of the 1947–48 season that prevented the Glasgow club from being relegated.

Career

Weir signed for Hibernian in 1942, but did not play league football until the 1946–47 season due to the Second World War. During the war, he had made guest appearances for Cardiff City and Brighton. Upon the resumption of league football in 1946, Weir enjoyed instant success, scoring four goals as Hibs won their first post-war league match 9–1 against Queen of the South. He had scored 14 goals in 19 league matches (and four goals in his only Scottish Cup appearance for Hibs) by the end of January 1947, but was allowed to join Blackburn for a fee of £10,000. This was perhaps because Hibs had the services of most of the Famous Five, which allowed the club to sell other talented players, including Weir, Leslie Johnston and Alex Linwood.

Weir was not such a great success with Blackburn, however, and was allowed to return to Scotland in 1948, signing for Celtic for a fee of £7,000. This transfer signalled a change of attitude by Celtic, who "had treated wartime football with contempt" and had passed up the opportunity to field guest players of international standing, including Matt Busby. Weir's arrival did not immediately arrest Celtic's decline, and the club entered the final day of the 1947–48 season with an outside chance of being relegated. This possibility was averted, however, as Celtic won their match 3–2 against Dundee at Dens Park, with Weir scoring a hat-trick.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jock Weir” as scottish footballer (1923-2003). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1923, 2003, 1947, 1942—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1923-10-20. The account is most persuasive where Jock, Weir and Scottish can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as scottish footballer (1923-2003). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10497024. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 2003, 1947 and 1942.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jock Weir”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jock Weir primary sources, Jock Weir archive and Jock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jock Weir”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jock Weir” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.