ABSTRACT
William Henry Dillon was born in August 1780, the illegitimate son of a middle-class family of Irish descent. His mother died in his infancy and his father, not. wishing William to join a profession, sent him into the navy in 1790 at the age of 10. When Britain entered the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 he already had three years’ experience at sea, having served aboard HMS Saturn, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line. He was still only 13, but a midshipman nonetheless, now aboard the frigate Thetis.
