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Brian Dillon (judge)

British lawyer (1925–2003)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ18645718
Source-derived summary

Sir George Brian Hugh Dillon, PC (2 October 1925 – 22 June 2003) 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.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Brian Dillon (judge)” is british lawyer (1925–2003). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brian, Dillon and judge, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 2003, 1982, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1925-10-02. For this dossier, Brian, Dillon and judge is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british lawyer (1925–2003)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18645718. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2003, 1982 and 1994.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Brian Dillon (judge)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Brian Dillon (judge) primary sources, Brian Dillon (judge) archive and Brian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Brian Dillon (judge)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Brian Dillon (judge)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.