Name Nicholas Dill Role Politician | Died 1993, Bermuda | |
 | ||
Born December 28, 1905Devonshire Parish, Bermuda ( 1905-12-28 ) Occupation Legislator, lawyer, soldier Spouse Lucy Clare Watlington (m. 1930–1993) Children Henry David Dill, Nicholas Bayard Dill Jr Siblings Diana Douglas, Helen Dill, Ruth Rapalje Dill, Thomas Newbold Dill, Laurence Dill, Frances Rapalje Dill Parents Ruth Rapalje, Thomas Melville Dill | ||
Sir Nicholas Bayard Dill (28 December 1905 – 10 September 1993), known as Bayard Dill, was a prominent Bermudian politician, lawyer and military officer.
Contents
Early life
Bayard Dill was born on 28 December 1905, at Newbold Place, his parents' home in Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. His father, Thomas Melville Dill (1876-1945), was a prominent Bermudian lawyer, politician and soldier, who would serve as the Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery, a Member of the Colonial Parliament (MCP), and Attorney General of Bermuda. His mother, born Ruth Rapalje (Neilson) (1880-1973), was a native of New Jersey. The Dill family had been prominent in Bermuda since the 1630s.
Legal and political career
Bayard Dill followed his father into law, and was a founding member in the 1930s of the Conyers, Dill & Pearman law firm (that played an important role in Bermuda's development as an offshore business centre). He also became a prominent politician, the long-time MCP for Devonshire North ´til he was defeated as an incumbent in the 1963 election by Lois Browne-Evans.
Bayard Dill played a key role in negotiating the agreement with the USA for its military and naval bases in Bermuda during the Second World War, which were granted to the US free for ninety-nine years as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement (although Britain received no destroyers in exchange for the bases in Bermuda). Some of the land procured by the USA for building the Naval Operating Base had belonged to the Dill family.
Military career
Bayard Dill also served as a military officer in the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (BVE). The BVE had been formed in 1931 to operate search lights at Bermuda's coastal artillery batteries (the guns being operated by the BMA). In 1937, it also absorbed the signals section of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, providing signals detachments to other units of the Bermuda Garrison. The first commanding officer of the BVE was Captain H. D. (later Sir Harry) Butterfield, and the second-in-command was Lieutenant Cecil Montgomery-Moore, DFC. In 1932, Butterfield retired, and Montgomery-Moore succeeded him. Lieutenant Bayard Dill became the new second-in-command. He was promoted to Acting-Captain on the 12th of July, 1940, and to Temporary-Captain on the 12th of October.
Private life
Bayard Dill's siblings included Ruth Rapalje Dill, Thomas Newbold Dill, Laurence Dill, Helen Dill, Frances Rapalje Dill, and Diana Dill.
Ruth Dill, was married to John Seward Johnson I, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. Diana Dill, moved to the USA, becoming an actress, and was married to actor Kirk Douglas, with whom she had two sons, Michael Douglas and Joel Douglas.
Bayard married Lucy Clare Watlington on the 3 July 1930. They had two sons, barrister Nicholas Bayard Dill Jr, born in 1932, and Henry David Dill, born in 1934.
Bayard Dill received a Knighthood in 1951. He died aged 87 after a heart attack on 10 September 1993, being eulogised, like his father, in the Royal Gazette.