| Arthur Dillon | |
|---|---|
Painting by Jean-Hilaire Belloc, 1834 |
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| Born | 3 September 1750 Braywich, England |
| Died | 13 April 1794 Paris |
| Allegiance | France |
Arthur Dillon (born in 1750 at Braywich, England, died at Paris, 1794) 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 (1834-1922), also a military officer.
At eighteen, he married his second cousin, Therese-Lucy de Rothe (1751 - 7 September 1782). They had two children: George, died at age two, and Lucie-Henriette Dillon (by marriage, Lucie-Henriette de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet), the noted 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, Marie-Françoise Laure de Girardin, 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.