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Sir John Dill fought for Britain. Why is he buried at Arlington National Cemetery?: The British field marshal played an instrumental role during World War II.Local Perspective Sir John Dill fought for Britain. Why is he buried at Arlington National Cemetery?: The British field marshal played an instrumental role during World War II.The Washington Post (Online), Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post What is the story behind the prominent grave with an equestrian statue at Arlington National Cemetery for John Dill, a British army officer from World War II?—Tom Bowers, Ashburn, Va. It's a story of the affection between two countries — and between two soldiers. Field Marshal Sir John Dill was born in 1881 in what we now call Northern Ireland. He had a quintessentially British military education — including at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst — before serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and in the Middle East during the Arab revolt. In 1940, as Britain was at war with Germany, Dill was named chief of the imperial general staff, making him the professional head of the British army. ButWinston Churchill soured on Dill, feeling he was too reticent. ("Dilly-Dally" was an unkind nickname the prime minister bestowed on Dill.) After 18 months, Churchill removed Dill from his military job, planning to dispatch him to India to serve as governor. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor altered Dill's trajectory. Before he could even leave for Bombay (today called Mumbai), he was ordered to accompany Churchill on a trip to Washington. Churchill then made Dill the British military liaison to the Americans. Dill's first wife had died in 1940. That was the same year that Nancy Charrington Furlong became a widow. Her husband, Brigadier Dennis Walter Furlong, was killed while inspecting a minefield on a Yorkshire beach, a reminder of how frequently death came during World War II. A year later, Mrs. Furlong married Sir John and became Lady Dill. She also became a popular presence in Washington, where she was often seen in a Red Cross uniform. Dill's new job was more diplomatic than strategic. He forged an especially strong friendship with Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall. It is not too strong a statement to say their special relationship helped the Allies win the war. In his biography of Marshall, Forrest C. Pogue wrote: "In an amazing balancing act, Dill was able to represent British wishes to the Americans without antagonizing them and to warn London of the limits of American forbearance without arousing suspicion on the part of his own chiefs that he had become a captive of his hosts." In 1943, Dill was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a blood disorder. Marshall arranged for Sir John and Lady Dill to spend the summer of 1944 at White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia. For a year, Dill was kept alive with blood transfusions. He died at the Walter Reed hospital in the District on Nov. 4, 1944. "The person who was responsible for his interment in Arlington was none other than Gen. George C. Marshall," said George Dodge, author of a 2006 book on the cemetery. In an editorial praising Dill, The Washington Post noted: "In a real sense he had found a home here and was cherished among us. Yet it certainly entailed a great measure of generosity on the part of his countrymen to permit the body of one of their great military leaders to be enshrined at Arlington instead of in their own Westminster Abbey." Marshall is buried in Section 7, just a few hundred yards from his British comrade. Dill is not the only foreigner buried at Arlington. More than 60 others, from 11 nations, lie there. They include military personnel killed while on duty in the United States, such as Section Officers Monica M. Daventry and Ruth P. Watson, who worked with Britain's Royal Air Force. They died in 1943 in a car crash atAlbemarle Street and Nebraska Avenue NW. Allies who were killed in plane crashes and whose remains were co-mingled with American crew members' are also buried at Arlington. They include Britain'sMaj. Gen. Orde Charles Wingate and Capt. Henry Borrow, killed in March 1944 in India, and Maj. Phao Van Vu, a South Vietnamese army officer who perished with six Americans in a helicopter crash in 1969. Onetime enemies rest in Arlington, too. German soldier Anton Hilberath and Italians Arcangelo Prudenza and Mario Batista were captured in North Africa during World War II and sent to prisoner-of-war camps in the United States. All died here. Geneva Conventions rules stipulate that deceased prisoners of war be "honorably buried." The three are in Section 15. There are only two equestrian statues in Arlington. One honors Union Gen. Philip Kearny. The other honors Dill. It is by sculptor Herbert Hazeltine and depicts Dill in the saddle and holding his field marshal's baton. The statue is handsomely situated in a grove of trees in Section 32. The statue was dedicated on Nov. 1, 1950. President Harry S. Truman delivered remarks, despite being the target of a terrorist attack that morning by Puerto Rican separatists. British Ambassador Sir Oliver Franks spoke, too, saying: "The rider on his horse has a message for today and for the future. He reminds us all that in the future as in the past the close association of the United States and Britain, of the English-speaking peoples of the world and their friends, is the one sure defense of freedom." A statue of Sir John Dill, a British army field marshal, stands in Arlington National Cemetery. (John Kelly/The Washington Post) |
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