Michael Dillon

Laurence Michael Dillon (1 May 1915 – 15 May 1962) was a British physician and author. He wrote a book in 1946 about transsexuality and at around that time he became the first trans man to undergo FTM top surgery (i.e., mastectomy with chest masculinization) and phalloplasty (the surgical construction of a penis). He was also an early user of testosterone therapy for his gender transition and was able to legally change his birth certificate. His transition became a subject of public attention when it affected his listing as the heir presumptive for the Dillon baronetcy of Lismullen in Ireland. He also performed an operation for the first case of a British trans woman to receive male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. He later moved to India and became devoted to Buddhism, changing his name to Lobzang Sramanera and then to Lobzang Jivaka. He wrote four books relating to Buddhism that were published in 1960–1962. He also wrote an autobiography that remained unpublished until 2016. Early life and transition Dillon was the second child of Robert Arthur Dillon (1865–1925), heir to the baronetcy of Lismullen in Ireland, and his Australian wife, Laura Maud McCliver, Reese. Dillon's mother died of sepsis ten days after giving birth. Dillon, assigned female at birth and given his mother's names of Laura Maude Dillon, was raised with older brother Bobby by their two aunts in Folkestone in Kent, England. He grew up in the Church of England. Dillon was educated at Brampton Down School, then at St Anne's College, Oxford, a women's college. Dillon was president of the Oxford University Women's Boat Club and won a blue for rowing, competing in the Women's Boat Race in 1935 and 1936. After graduating he took a job at a research laboratory in Bristol.