Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, III

Former military officer Thomas Melville Dill became a prominent Bermudian lawyer and entered politics, eventually becoming Bermuda's Attorney General. He served as a Member of the Colonial Parliament (MCP). Dill was an avid historian, writing many articles about Bermuda's history.

He was born on December 23, 1876 in Devonshire, in the British colony of Bermuda, the son of Mary Lea (née Smith) and Thomas Newbold Dill. Dill was named for a seafaring forebear, who had lost his master's certificate after the wreck of the Bermudian-built Cedrine on the Isle of Wight, which had been returning the last convict laborers from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda to Britain in 1863.

Dill entered the fledgling Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps during the last decade of the 19th Century as a rifleman, before transferring to the Bermuda Militia Artillery, a reserve of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, as a Lieutenant. By 1914, Major Dill was the Commanding Officer, but he handed that position to a subordinate in order to lead the unit's First Contingent to the Western Front. Serving as part of the larger Royal Garrison Artillery draft to the front, the Bermudian contingent was strongly praised by Field Marshal Haig. After the War, Major Dill returned to Bermuda, resuming his command of the BMA, from which he retired in 1928 with the rank of Colonel.

Personal Life

On October 15, 1900, he married Ruth Rapalje Neilson. They had several children, some of whom followed him to positions of prominence in Bermuda or abroad. Their children were Ruth Rapalje Dill, Thomas Newbold Dill, Nicholas Bayard Dill, Laurence Dill, Helen Dill, Frances Rapalje Dill and Diana Dill. Sir Bayard Dill was an officer in the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers, a founding member of the Conyers, Dill & Pearman law firm (that played an important role in Bermuda's development as an offshore business centre), and a prominent politician who was knighted in 1951. He also played a key role in negotiating the agreement with the USA for its military and naval bases in Bermuda during the Second World War. Ruth Dill, was married to John Seward Johnson I, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. Their children included Mary Lea Johnson Richards, John Seward Johnson II, and Diana Firestone. Diana Dill, moved to the USA, becoming an actress. She was married to actor Kirk Douglas, with whom she had two sons, including actor and producer Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas.

Colonel Dill died of a heart attack on March 7, 1945, following injuries sustained during a fall in February, being eulogized on the front page of The Royal Gazette.

• Source: Wikipedia
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 6 2020, 13:03:59 UTC