Arthur Dillon

Arthur Dillon, comte de Dillon, was a French Army officer of Irish descent, a colonial administrator, and a deputy during the early French Revolution. Born at Braywick (Berkshire, England) on 3 September 1750, he entered French service as a youth in the family’s regiment of the former Irish Brigade, the Régiment de Dillon, becoming its colonel-proprietor while still in his teens.

During the War of American Independence, Dillon’s regiment was deployed to the West Indies and adjacent theaters, where it participated in French operations in the Caribbean and on the North American littoral. Contemporary and later accounts associate his service with actions in the Antilles, including Grenada and Tobago, as well as with the Franco-American campaign activity that extended to Savannah. He advanced through the senior grades of the royal army, receiving promotion as brigadier d’infanterie (1780) and later maréchal de camp (1784), and he held colonial posts, serving as governor of Saint-Christophe (Saint Kitts) and subsequently as governor of Tobago (appointed 1786).

Elected deputy for Martinique to the États généraux of 1789, he sat in the Assemblée nationale constituante (from October 1789 to September 1791). In parliamentary work he intervened frequently on colonial questions (including disturbances and administration in the Antilles), military organization and recruitment (notably the status of foreign regiments), and policies touching the colonies’ social order; his recorded positions generally aligned with the interests and assumptions of the colonial planter class, including opposition to certain petitions advanced by people of color.

Returning to active command in the revolutionary crisis, Dillon was promoted lieutenant général in 1792 and served with the field armies on the northern frontier, initially under Lafayette and later under Dumouriez. In the aftermath of 10 August 1792 he issued orders emphasizing fidelity to “law and king,” which contributed to the loss of confidence in his command; he was replaced, then re-employed under Dumouriez with a divisional command and duties in the advance guard during the Argonne operations. Accusations followed that he had corresponded improperly with the enemy—centered on a letter addressed to the Landgrave of Hesse—and his situation deteriorated amid the political radicalization of 1793. Arrested in July 1793, he was imprisoned at the Luxembourg and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal in the context of the alleged conspiration des prisons. He was guillotined in Paris in April 1794; some accounts report that he cried “Vive le roi!” at the scaffold.

Dillon’s name was later included among those inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe. He married first Thérèse-Lucy de Rothe, and later Laure de Girardin de Montgérald. His children included Henriette-Lucy Dillon (later marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet), a memoirist of the Revolutionary era, and Élisabeth Françoise (“Fanny”) Dillon, who later married General Bertrand.

Sources

• Assemblée nationale (Sycomore): Arthur Dillon
• BnF Data: Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)
• Gallica (BnF): Compte rendu au ministre de la Guerre (1792)
• Wikipedia (English): Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)
• Wikipedia (French): Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)
• FrenchEmpire.net: General Arthur Dillon
• Wikipedia (French): Noms gravés sous l’arc de triomphe de l’Étoile