William Henry Dillon

Admiral Sir William Henry Dillon (8 August 1779 - 9 September 1857) was a British naval officer.

He was born in Birmingham in 1779, illegitimate son of Sir John Talbot Dillon, and Elizabeth Collins. He entered the navy in May 1790 and served as a midshipman under Captain Gambier in HMS Defence (1763), and was stunned by a splinter in the action of 1 June 1794. He was present in Lord Bridport's action off Ile de Groix on 23 June 1795, and at the reduction of St. Lucie in May 1796, when he carried a flag of truce to take possession of Pigeon Island. Having become an acting-lieutenant in Glenmore in 1798, he co-operated with the army at Wexford during the rebellion, where he succeeded in arresting the Irish chief Skallian.

As a lieutenant on board HMS Crescent (1784) on the Jamaica station, he participated in the capture of the Spanish corvette HMS Galgo (1799) in the Mona Passage, and sailed her back to Jamaica. As senior-lieutenant of the Africaine, he was sent with a flag of truce from Lord Keith to the Dutch commodore, Valterbach, at Helvoetsluys on 20 July 1803. Against the rules of war he was made a prisoner, handed over to the French, and detained in captivity until September 1807.

On 8 April 1805, during his captivity, he had been promoted to commander, and on obtaining his release he took the command of the sloop HMS Childers (1778), carrying only fourteen 12-pound carronades and sixty-five men. In her, on 14 March 1808, on the coast of Norway, after a long action, drove off the Danish twenty-gun brig Lougen. In this service he was severely wounded, and his gallant conduct was acknowledged by the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund, which presented him a sword valued at one hundred guineas. After promotion to post-captain he served at the Walcheren Expedition, on the coasts of Portugal and Spain, at Newfoundland, in China, India, and finally in the Mediterranean, in command of the 74-gun third rate HMS Russell (1822), when he rendered much service to the Spanish cause.

He was promoted to flag rank on 9 November 1846. He was nominated as a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH) on 13 January 1835, and on 24 June was knighted by William IV at St. James's Palace. In 1839 he received the good-service pension. He was gazetted a vice-admiral of the blue on 5 March 1853, and of the red in 1857, and died on 9 September 1857, leaving in manuscript an account of his professional career, with a description of the many scenes in which he had been engaged.