John Dill
Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill, GCB, CMG, DSO (25 December 1881 – 4 November 1944) was a senior British Army officer with service in both the First World War and the Second World War. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, and subsequently served in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and then Senior British Representative on the Combined Chiefs of Staff.
Sir John Dill
25 December 1881
Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland
4 November 1944 (aged 62)
Washington, D.C., United States
United Kingdom
1901–1944
6659
Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1940–41)
I Corps (1939–40)
Aldershot Command (1937–39)
British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan (1936–37)
Staff College, Camberley (1931–34)
2nd Infantry Brigade (1923–26)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in Despatches (8)
Army Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Officer of the Legion of Honour (France)
Croix de guerre (France)
Commander of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania
Grand Cross of the Order of St Olav (Norway)
Order of Polonia Restituta, 1st Class (Poland)
Early life[edit]
Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, then part of Ireland, on 25 December 1881, John Greer Dill's father, also named John,[1] (and who died when the younger John was just twelve years old) was the local bank manager and his mother, Jane,[1] (who died just months after her husband) was a Greer from Woodville, Lurgan.[2][3] With the death of both parents, "John and his sister were then cared for by an uncle, the Reverend Joseph Grundy Burton".[3]
Always intended for a career in the armed forces, Dill, along with his sister, Nicolina Frances, attended the Methodist College Belfast,[4] from 1887 to 1889. This was followed by his education at Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire, England and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.[2][5][6] According to historian Richard Doherty, Dill's conduct at Sandhurst were "exemplary" although there "were no indications of the outstanding intelligence for which he would later be noted and his marks were described as mediocre".[7]
First World War[edit]
Shortly after the war began, and after having briefly serving on the staff of Southern Command, Dill became brigade major of the 25th Brigade, part of the 8th Division, which was sent to the Western Front to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), where Dill would remain for the rest of the war. He was present at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 and for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order.[18][19][16]
During 1916 Dill, promoted in May to major,[20] served on the General Staff of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division and Canadian Corps, before being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff (GSO1) of the 37th Division in January 1917.[18][5] He was moved to the General Staff at General Headquarters in October of that year, initially as part of the Training Section but was soon shifted to the Operations Section.[18] By the end of the war he was a temporary brigadier general, having been promoted to that rank in late March 1918,[21] and had been mentioned in despatches eight times.[16][17] From the spring of 1918 he was Head of Operations at GHQ, an important promotion after the sacking of many of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's senior staff following the Battle of Cambrai.[22][23] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1918 New Year Honours.[24] He also received a number of foreign decorations for his service, including the Officer of the Legion of Honour,[25] the French Croix de guerre,[26] Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium,[27] Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania.[28][5]