John Dill

Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill, (25 December 1881 – 4 November 1944) was a senior British Army officer with service in both the First World War and the Second World War. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, and subsequently served in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and then Senior British Representative on the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Early life Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland, on 25 December 1881, Dill's father was the local bank manager and his mother was a Greer from Woodville, Lurgan. Always intended for a career in the services, Dill attended the Methodist College Belfast, Cheltenham College in England and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Military career From Sandhurst Dill was commissioned on 8 May 1901 as a second lieutenant into the 1st Battalion of the Leinster Regiment and was posted to South Africa to see out the Second Boer War. After the end of the war in June 1902, Dill left Cape Town with other men of his battalion on the SS Englishman in late September 1902, arriving at Southampton the following month, from where they were posted to Fermoy. Dill was appointed regimental adjutant on 15 August 1906, having previously been assistant adjutant from 1902. Promoted to captain on 12 July 1911, he was seconded to study at the Staff College, Camberley from 1 February 1913, and was still there on the outbreak of the First World War eighteen months later. First World War After briefly serving on the staff of Southern Command Dill became brigade major of the 25th Brigade (8th Division) in France where he was present at Neuve Chapelle and won the Distinguished Service Order. During 1916 Dill served on the General Staff of the 55th Division and Canadian Corps, before being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff (GSO1) of the 37th Division in January 1917. He was moved to the General Staff at General Headquarters in October of that year, initially as part of the Training Section but was soon shifted to the Operations Section. By the end of the war he was a brigadier general and had been Mentioned in Despatches eight times. From the spring of 1918 he was Head of Operations at GHQ, an important promotion after the sacking of many of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's senior staff following the Battle of Cambrai.