George "Doddie" Weir OBE

Born 4 July 1970
Passed 26 November 2022 from MND

Scottish former rugby union player and campaigner for Motor Neurone Disease research. Doddie played as a lock and made 61 international appearances for the Scotland national team.

Rugby legend Doddie Weir's legacy as a champion for people with motor neurone disease will live on after his death, his family and friends have said.

Weir was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He started playing rugby for Stewart's Melville FP RFC, then Melrose RFC in the Borders and was part of the team that won six Scottish club championships.

He later moved to England in 1995 to join the Newcastle Falcons and was part of the Premiership winning side of 1997–98. He also started the victorious 2001 Anglo-Welsh Cup final.

He moved back to Scotland to join the newly reformed Borders team in 2002 where he remained until his retirement from professional rugby. He finished his playing career at the Border Reivers in 2004.

After his playing career he went on to work for Hutchinson Environmental Solutions, a waste management company that was started by his father-in-law. He is also active on the after-dinner speech circuit and occasionally appears on the BBC as part of the half-time analysis during Scotland matches.

He currently lives with his family on a farm which he bought in the Scottish Borders.

In June 2017, Weir announced that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). In August, he spoke about plans to set up a foundation named 'My Name's Doddie' in order to "raise funds for research into a cure for MND and to provide grants to people living with the condition" – A new tartan was designed by Doddie in collaboration with the ScotlandShop, in a bid to raise cash for his motor neurone disease research charity. The tartan features colours from the teams he played for: black and yellow of Melrose, blue and white of Scotland, and black of the former and white of the latter are also intended as a reference to his seven years with Newcastle Falcons.

My Name's Doddie: The Autobiography was published on 25 October 2018.

• He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to rugby, to motor neurone disease research and to the community in the Scottish Borders.

• the Doddie Weir Cup is a perpetual rugby union trophy for matches played between Scotland and Wales; including those matches played in the Six Nations.

• In December 2019, Weir was announced as the recipient of the Helen Rollason Award, which is presented every year during the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year show.

Weir is a notable Sept of Clan Buchanan. Learn more about the Names of Buchanan