Dill, John Greer

Dill, John Greer 

Born Dec. 25, 1881, in Lurgan, Northern Ireland; died Nov. 4, 1944, in Washington. British field marshall (1941).

Dill graduated from Cheltenham College in 1901. He served in the Boer War and in World War I. Dill was chief of the Imperial Staff College from 1931 to 1934 and chief of operations of the War Office from 1934 to 1936. He commanded British troops in Palestine in 1936-37 and the troops of the Aldershot Command in 1937-39. At the beginning of World War II, from 1939 to 1940, he commanded the British Army’s I Corps in France. Dill was vice chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1940 and served as chief of staff in 1940-41. In December 1941, as a member of a military delegation, he participated in the Washington Conference, after which he was chief of the British military mission attached to the Joint Allied Staff in Washington until his death.