William Henry Dillon

Who was William Henry Dillon?

Admiral Sir William Henry Dillon was a British naval officer.

He was born in Birmingham in 1779, illegitimate son of Sir John Talbot Dillon, and Elizabeth Collins. He entered the navy in May 1790 and served as a midshipman under Captain Gambier in Defence, and was stunned by a splinter in the action of 1 June 1794. He was present in Lord Bridport's action off Ile de Groix on 23 June 1795, and at the reduction of St. Lucie in May 1796, when he carried a flag of truce to take possession of Pigeon Island. Having become an acting-lieutenant in Glenmore in 1798, he co-operated with the army at Wexford during the rebellion, where he succeeded in arresting the Irish chief Skallian.

As a lieutenant on board Crescent on the Jamaica station, he participated in the capture of the Spanish corvette Galgo in the Mona Passage, and sailed her back to Jamaica. As senior-lieutenant of the Africaine, he was sent with a flag of truce from Lord Keith to the Dutch commodore, Valterbach, at Helvoetsluys on 20 July 1803. Against the rules of war he was made a prisoner, handed over to the French, and detained in captivity until September 1807.

On 8 April 1805, during his captivity, he had been promoted to commander, and on obtaining his release he took the command of the sloop Childers, carrying only fourteen 12-pound carronades and sixty-five men. In her, on 14 March 1808, on the coast of Norway, after a long action, drove off the Danish twenty-gun brig Lougen. In this service he was severely wounded, and his gallant conduct was acknowledged by the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund, which presented him a sword valued at one hundred guineas. After promotion to post-captain he served at the Walcheren Expedition, on the coasts of Portugal and Spain, at Newfoundland, in China, India, and finally in the Mediterranean, in command of the 74-gun third rate Russell, when he rendered much service to the Spanish cause.