Brian Dillon (judge)


Sir George Brian Hugh Dillon was a British lawyer and judge who served as a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1982 to 1994.

Biography

Dillon was born in a naval family, the son of Captain George Crozier Dillon, RN, and the grandson of an admiral. He was educated at Winchester College, where he was a scholar, before proceeding to New College, Oxford, also as a scholar. Initially reading Classics, he switched to law, before joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1943, training at HMS Ganges before serving in the Far East abroad the destroyer HMS Tyrian.
Returning to Oxford after the war, he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1948, and acquired a "huge practice" at the Chancery bar. He took silk in 1965 and became head of chambers.
He was appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice, in 1979, assigned to the Chancery Division and received the customary knighthood. He was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1982, and was sworn of the Privy Council. He retired in 1994.

Family

Dillon married Alison Lane in 1954; they had two sons and two daughters.

Selected judgments

Lord Justice Dillon's reported cases include: