1. From Sandhurst John Dill was commissioned on 8 May 1901 as a second lieutenant into the 1st Battalion of the Leinster Regiment, one of eight Irish infantry regiments then in existence in the British Army.
20 Facts About John Dill
1. 2.
John Dill was present at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 and for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
3.
John Dill was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1918 New Year Honours.
4.
John Dill received a number of foreign decorations for his service, including the Officer of the Legion of Honour, the French Croix de guerre, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania.
5.
John Dill was knighted in the 1937 Coronation Honours with his promotion to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and he was then appointed General Officer Commanding, Aldershot Command.
6.
At the outbreak of the Second World War John Dill hoped to be appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, but the position again went to Gort.
7.
The resulting vacancy as Chief of the Imperial General Staff was filled by Sir Edmund Ironside, leaving John Dill to be eventually posted as commander of I Corps in France on 3 September 1939.
8.
John Dill was promoted to general on 1 October 1939.
9.
On returning to the UK in April 1940, John Dill was appointed Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff, under Ironside, by the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
10.
On 27 May 1940, after Chamberlain had been replaced by Churchill, John Dill replaced Ironside as CIGS.
11.
John Dill was promoted field marshal on 18 November 1941, but by this time it was clear how poorly he and Churchill got on.
12.
John Dill showed a great flair as a diplomatic military presence.
13.
John Dill served on the Combined Policy Committee set up by the British and United States governments under the Quebec Agreement to oversee the construction of the atomic bomb.
14.
John Dill was awarded the Henry Howland Memorial Prize in 1944, in part to ensure his continued favour with Churchill.
15.
John Dill was particularly friendly with General George Marshall and the two exercised a great deal of influence on President Roosevelt who described Dill as "the most important figure in the remarkable accord which has been developed in the combined operations of our two countries".
16.
John Dill served in Washington until his death from aplastic anaemia in November 1944.
17.
John Dill was sorely missed by the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sent a warm message of condolence to their British colleagues:.
18.
John Dill was posthumously awarded the American Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1944 as well as receiving an unprecedented joint resolution of the United States Congress appreciating his services.
19.
John Dill was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.
20.
The equestrian statue on John Dill's grave is one of only two at the cemetery, the other is Major-General Philip Kearny's.