Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)

Arthur Dillon (born 1750, Bray Wick, England – died 1794, Paris, France) was a general in French service under the Ancien Régime and in the American and French Revolutionary Wars.

He was the son of Lady Charlotte Lee and Henry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen, and cousin of Théobald Dillon (not to be confused with his brother, also named Théobald). His grandfather was general Arthur Dillon. He was the grandfather of Arthur Dillon, also a military officer.

At eighteen, he married a second cousin, Therese-Lucy de Rothe (born 1751 – died 7 September 1782); the couple had two children: George (who died at two years of age) and Henriette-Lucy (by marriage, Lucie-Henriette, Marquise de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet), a memoiriste of the Revolutionary period and the Napoleonic era. On the death of his uncle, Arthur, by inheritance, became colonel of the Dillon family's proprietary regiment.

In 1778, he sailed with his regiment to the Caribbean to campaign against Britain. He served at Grenada; Savannah, Georgia (where he was promoted to brigadier); and elsewhere. After the Treaty of Paris, he became governor of Tobago. His first wife having died, he married a wealthy French Creole widow from Martinique, Laure de Girardin de Montgérald, the Comtesse de la Touche, by whom he had six children.

He returned to Paris to represent Martinique in the Estates-General of 1789. A democratic, reformist royalist, Dillon was guillotined during the Reign of Terror.

Works

 * Compte-rendu au ministre de la guerre (Paris, 1792) ;
 * Exposition des principaux événements qui ont eu le plus d'influence sur la révolution française (Paris, 1792).