Arthur Dillon (1750-1794)

Arthur Dillon
Painting by Jean-Hilaire Belloc, 1834
Born	3 September 1750 Bray Wick, England
Died	13 April 1794(1794-04-13) (aged 43) Paris, France
Allegiance	France
Rank	general

Arthur Dillon (3 September 1750 – 13 April 1794) was an England-born aristocrat who inherited leadership of a French army regiment and remained in the French army, serving the Ancien Régime in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. After serving in political positions during the early years of the revolution, he was executed in Paris as a royalist during the Reign of Terror, in 1794.

Born at Bray Wick in Berkshire, England, Dillon 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 (1751 – 7 September 1782); the couple had two children: George (who died at two years of age) and Henriette-Lucy, or Lucie (by marriage, Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet), a memoiriste of the Revolutionary period and the Napoleonic era. On the death of his uncle, Edouard, by inheritance, he 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.