Cecil Thomas (Ginger) Weir was born in Glasgow, Scotland,[1] on 2 April 1913.
[2] He was educated at Brentwood College School on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
[3] He entered the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1931,[2] and graduated and was commissioned as a pilot officer on 15 July 1933.
[2] During a raid on the Osnabruck Canal in November 1944, his Avro Lancaster bomber was hit by a bomb from another aircraft.
[13] After receiving a King's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air on 9 June 1949,[14] Weir served as Senior Officer-in-Charge Administration (SOA) at AHQ Malta from 3 Dec 1949,[2] with promotion to group captain on 1 January 1951.
[15] He worked in the Air Ministry from 1952 to 1955, when he became commander of the Central Gunnery School at RAF Leconfield.
After promotion to air commodore on 1 January 1957,[16] he was air task group commander for the Operation Grapple nuclear tests at Christmas Island in 1957, the first test of a British thermonuclear weapon,[2] for which he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1958 New Year Honours,[17] Afterwards, Weir attended the Joint Services Staff College.