14 April 1794 General Arthur Dillon, a French soldier of Irish descent, was guillotined in Paris on this day. The Dillon family were amongst the most famous of the ‘Wild Geese’ who served in the armies of France in the 17th and 18th Centuries. He was born in 1750 and had a distinguished military career, seeing action in the West Indies and in the American Revolutionary War.

In 1778, he sailed with his regiment to the Caribbean to campaign against Britain. In 1779 he and his regiment fought at the Capture of Grenada against British forces under George Macartney. They landed on 2 July, and stormed the Hospital Hill which the British had chosen as the centre of their resistance. Arthur personally led one of the storm parties, his brother Henry led another. He served also served at the siege Savannah, Georgia (where he was promoted to brigadier); and elsewhere. 

After the Treaty of Paris, he became governor of Tobago. His first wife having died, he married a wealthy French Creole widow from Martinique, Laure de Girardin de Montgérald, the Comtesse de la Touche, by whom he had six children. His daughter Fanny married General Bertrand and was with Napoleon in his exiles on Elba and St Helena and present at his deathbed. 

He was briefly Governor of the Caribbean island of St Kitts  & when he visited London after the peace of 1783 he was complimented by the lord chancellor on his administration of that island. He was the representative of the island of Martinique in the National Assembly where he spoke on colonial affairs.

In June 1792 he received command of the Army of the North but fell into political disfavour with the Jacobins and was reduced to a subordinate position under  General Dumouriez where he distinguished himself in the Argonne passes. However he compromised his security by offering  the landgrave of Hesse an unmolested retreat so as to be able to withdraw unhindered. For this he was arrested and imprisoned. 

He was eventually accused of being involved in a plot behind bars called the ‘Luxembourg Prison Plot’. After eight months in prison he was executed with 20 others including his intimate friend Lucile Desmoulines whose own husband was guillotined just days before.  In his final moments he mounted the scaffold shouting, "Vive le roi! (Long live the king)".