The Doc Weir Award for service to fandom was voted to Claire Brialey during Conversation, Eastercon 2023, this past weekend. Last year’s winner, James Shields, made the announcement. Brialey was not in attendance.
eFanzine’s complete history of the Doc Weir Award begins:
The Doc Weir Award was set up in 1963 in memory of fan Arthur Rose (Doc) Weir, who had died two years previously. Weir was a relative newcomer to fandom, he discovered it late in life – but in the short time of his involvement he was active in a number of fannish areas. In recognition of this, the Award is sometimes seen as the “Good Guy” Award; something for “The Unsung Heroes”.
The award, voted by attending members of Eastercon and presented at the convention, is a silver cup which each winner keeps for a year. It is engraved with the earliest winners’ names, and since space on the cup itself ran out other names have been engraved on silver plates mounted on the cup’s storage box.
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Claire was absent as unfortunately she was isolating after a positive Covid test.
It was noted at the ceremony that Peter Mabey, the first winner of the award, has recently celebrated his 97th birthday.
Just to be clear, Claire was isolating in accordance with the convention’s policy as she has symptoms that could be Covid. She has in fact tested negative more than once.
Glad to hear that – my Covid app’s just pinged me that I’ve been in proximity to someone who’s reported a positive test, so I’ll do a LFT when I get home in about 90 mins!
I don’t think the NHS is necessarily being very wise in turning the app off later this month!
And one other interesting aspect, this time, of the Doc Weir Award ceremony, at Eastercon 2023 / Conversation closing, was the request by outgoing 2022 winner (James Shields). Just before announcing the 2023 winner, he called on anyone in the audience (who was a previous winner) to briefly stand up. Sadly this year only a few of us were present but all there duly did so (I was the 2005 recipient). For non-UK fen, the Doc Weir Award is similar to the “Big Heart” award, usually made at Worldcons..
Can’t think of a more deserving winner of an award for service to fandom than Claire
I cannot think of a more deserving winner for the Doc Weir Award than Claire. She is a blessing to fandom, and Valerie and I are very happy for her.
Show-business people talk about the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar Tony). Claire is in the process of gathering British SF fandom’s equivalent – multiple Nova Awards, a Hugo for Best Fanwriter, the Doc Weir Award and (coming next year) Fan Guest of Honour at a British Worldcon.