Nicholas Bayard Dill
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Sir Nicholas Bayard Dill | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Colonial Parliament for Devonshire North | |
| Succeeded by | Dame Lois Browne-Evans |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 December 1905 |
| Died | 10 September 1993 (aged 87) Bermuda |
| Spouse | Lucy Clare Watlington |
| Children | 2 |
| Occupation | Legislator, lawyer, soldier |
Sir Nicholas Bayard Dill CBE (28 December 1905 – 10 September 1993),[1] known as Bayard Dill, was a prominent Bermudian politician, lawyer and military officer.
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) for Devonshire, 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. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Newbold Dill (1837–1910), was a merchant, a Member of the Colonial Parliament (MCP) for Devonshire Parish from 1868 to 1888, a Member of the Legislative Council and an Assistant Justice from 1888, Mayor of the City of Hamilton from 1891 to 1897, served on numerous committees and boards, and was a member of the Devonshire Church (Church of England) and Devonshire Parish vestries (the latter is now termed a Parish Council).
Legal and political career
Bayard Dill followed his father into law as a barrister, completing a law degree at the University of Cambridge and being admitted to the bar at Middle Temple, London, in 1926, and the Supreme Court of Bermuda in 1927. He 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).[1][2] He also became a prominent politician, the MCP for Devonshire North from 1938 until he was defeated as an incumbent in the 1963 election by Lois Browne-Evans. He was also appointed to HM Executive Council of Bermuda on 23 August 1944.
Bayard Dill played a key role in negotiating the agreement with the US 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 US for building the Naval Operating Base had belonged to the Dill family.[3][4][5][6]