Doc Weir Winners Final
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The Doc Weir Award The Dr Arthur R Weir Memorial Fund was discussed and it was agreed that the money collected during the past year, some fourteen pounds, should be devoted to a Fan Recognition Award in Doc’s name. Skyrack #42, 27 April 1962, ed: Ron Bennett …and that’s how and when the Doc Weir Award came into being. That £14, equivalent to about £284 today, funded a handsome silver cup on a black base, later housed in a wooden presentation box. It was first presented at the 1963 Eastercon, Bullcon in Peterborough. Since then, the Doc Weir Award has been presented every year except 1982, 1983, 1986 and 1988. Winners’ names were added first to the base of the cup and then, when that filled up, to plaques on the box itself. Each year, members of the Eastercon vote for the person who they think is most deserving of the award, generally somebody who has made a significant contribution to fandom which has largely gone unrecognised, one of the unsung heroes if you like: The scheme, then, is that a trophy be presented annually to ‘the person (fan) voted the person one would most like to see win the said Award’ Ken Cheslin, quoted in a letter from Archie Mercer to Ken Bulmer, dated 28th April 1962 In typical fannish fashion, the reward for hard work is more work: today, the winner of the award is responsible for arranging for the engraving of their name, insuring the cup and running the following year’s voting process. This booklet is intended to remind people about the contributions made by past winners of the award, from the Hugo winners to the ones who make you ask “Where are they now?” (and sometimes receive the response ”Working hard to make the convention work, just like every year”). They include authors, booksellers, fanzine editors and writers, convention runners, club organisers and people who just do stuff that needs doing, and we thank them all. The BSFA is the British Science Fiction Association, formed in 1958. An APA is an Amateur Publishing Association, a kind of communal fanzine in which each member produces several copies of a short fanzine, which are then collated and one set sent out to each of the contributors. OMPA, the Off-trail Magazine Publishers’ Association, was the first APA in the UK, but many others exist. TAFF is the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, which uses donations from fandom to send North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions. The Big Heart Award is given at each Worldcon to a fan who embodies ”good work and great spirit long contributed”. Winners marked (d) are sadly deceased. 1963 Peter Mabey Peter was one of the first members of the Cheltenham Circle and the BSFA, acting as Librarian of the BSFA lending library when the collection was also held at Cheltenham; he later served as a BSFA committee member after the organisation’s incorporation. He was one of the founders of the Order of St. Fantony and was presented, in his absence, with the first Doc Weir Award at the 1963 Eastercon (Bullcon). He was a member of the organising committee for the 1965 Worldcon (Loncon II) and was responsible for its Publications. He has continued to attend conventions well into his 90s. 1964 Archie Mercer (d) Archie was the founding treasurer of the BSFA and an editor of the BSFA Bulletin and Vector, the BSFA’s critical journal. He published many fanzines, some jointly with his wife and 1969 Doc Weir winner, Beryl. They met in the early 1960s; an early encounter in print saw Archie writing an article as an established fan in response to Beryl’s from the perspective of newcomers. As well as fanzines, he wrote a fannish novel, Meadows of Fantasy, and contributed to APAs including OMPA and the BSFA’s PaDS (Publishing and Distribution Service), which he helped to run. He was on the committee of the 1966 Eastercon (Yarcon) and, with Beryl, handled publications for the 1967 Eastercon (Briscon). 1965 Terry Jeeves (d) Terry was a fan artist, writer and publisher, known for welcoming and helping newcomers to the world of fandom. He produced 166 issues of his solo fanzine Erg between 1959 and 2005, as well as co-editing Triode and Con-Science. His artwork (including the unmistakable alien ‘Soggies’) appeared in many fanzines and won him the 2007 Rotsler Award. He was a founding member of the BSFA, on the committees of the 1957 Worldcon (Loncon I) and the 1959 Eastercon (Brumcon), and was one of the founders of TAFF (for which he ran, unsuccessfully, three times). He was inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2010. 1966 Ken F Slater (d) Ken was a fan, book dealer and reviewer. He played a major role in restarting British fandom after WWII, including helping to found the Science Fantasy Society (which ran the 1949 Eastercon) and running Operation Fantast to help fans to get around post-war import and currency restrictions when buying foreign SF publications. He helped to found the BSFA and TAFF, was a member of First Fandom, and was on the committee of the 1957 Worldcon (Loncon I). His first convention was the first ‘Eastercon’, Whitcon, in 1948. He published many fanzines and APA contributions, and was a Guest at a number of conventions including (with his wife and 1984 Doc Weir winner Joyce Slater) the 1987 Worldcon (Conspiracy). In 1995, he received the Big Heart Award. 1967 Doreen Parker (d) Doreen was a long-time fan who was active in the BSFA in the 1960s and 70s; she was an editor of Vector, the BSFA’s critical journal, and served for some time as the organisation’s Secretary; she and 1966 Doc Weir winner Ken Slater helped the BSFA though a financial crisis in 1966. She put her legal training to fannish good use, acting as a director and Company Secretary of fellow Doc Weir winner Ken Slater’s book dealing business. She later married 1971 Doc Weir winner Phil Rogers. Fellow fans variously described her as ”a cheering presence at UK cons for many years” (Dave Langford), and as being at the centre of ”a kind of portable fiesta” (Dan Morgan). She was the Guest at Novacon 2 in 1972. 1968 Mary Reed Mary published fanzines in the 1960s, including Link (with 1969 Doc Weir winner Beryl Mercer) and Crabapple, around which Kinkay Fandom developed (a group including Beryl along with fellow Doc Weir winners Archie Mercer and Arthur Cruttenden, who all went on to found the Herts Science Fiction and Fantasy Group together). These fanzines included her ‘Tribe-X’ stories which were an early example of fan fiction. Mary emigrated to the USA in 1976; she now writes mysteries with her husband, fellow fan Eric Mayer. 1969 Beryl Mercer (d) Beryl, née Henley, was active and influential in British fandom from the 1960s, including the BSFA. She produced and contributed to a range of fanzines, some with her husband, Archie Mercer, and one with Mary Reed – both fellow Doc Weir winners. She also helped to run PaDS (the Publishing and Distribution Service) for the BSFA. She was on the committee of the 1966 Eastercon (Yarcon) and with Archie handled publications for the 1967 Eastercon (Briscon). 1970 J Michael Rosenblum (d) Mike was active in Leeds fandom from the mid-1930s and attended the 1937 Leeds Convention, the first ever SF convention. He was on the committee of Midvention in 1943. In the 1950s, he helped form the Leeds Science Fiction Association and was active in the BSFA. He published fanzines from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Futurian War Digest, credited with keeping British fandom connected during WWII, and was a regular at British conventions into the 1970s. He was known for having one of Europe's largest collections of SF. A conscientious objector, he spent the war working on a farm and, during night-time air raids, as a fire watcher. His son, Howard, was also a fan, as is his granddaughter Michelle. 1971 Phil Rogers (d) Phil was involved in fandom for 40 years from the late 1950s. He was on the committees of the Eastercons in 1962 (Ronvention) and 1966 (Yarcon) and was the Toastmaster for the 1971 Eastercon (Eastercon 22). He was active in the running of the BSFA both before and after its incorporation as a limited company in 1967. He was married to 1967 Doc Weir winner Doreen Parker. Phil was a wine maker and keen gardener, using the products of his well-stocked greenhouse in the meals that he and Doreen created for fellow fans. Prior to 1967, when the practice of winners arranging for the engraving of their own names on the cup came into being, Phil paid for the engraving. He also paid for the box in which it was stored until 2019. 1972 Jill Adams (d) Jill was active in fandom from the 1950s, making an impression on 1964 Doc Weir winner Archie Mercer and others at the 1957 Worldcon (Loncon I) for ”apparently being able to go without sleep altogether for several nights on the trot and still look just as fresh as at the beginning”. This might have helped her long involvement in the running of the BSFA from its inauguration the following year, including stints as both Treasurer and Secretary, as part of which she was responsible for arranging the engraving of the Doc Weir Award winners’ names onto the cup prior to 1967. 1973 Ethel Lindsay (d) Ethel joined Glasgow fan group the Newlands SF Fan Club in 1952, and attended the 1954 Eastercon (Supermancon).