Michael Dillon
Michael Dillon was born Laura Maud Dillon on May 1, 1915, the second child of Robert Dillon, heir to the Baronetcy of Lismullen. Dillon never felt comfortable as a girl. He disliked women’s clothing and excelled at sports not typically associated with females of the era. When at St Anne’s College, Oxford, he became president of the women’s boat club and won a university sporting blue for rowing.
After graduation, Dillon took a research job in Bristol. But his feelings of discomfort did not abate. In 1939, he consulted a local doctor, Dr. George Foss, who was using testosterone to treat extreme menstrual bleeding. Dillon asked for treatment to stop his periods altogether. Foss referred Dillon to a psychiatrist- who duly spread the tale all around Bristol. Dillon was forced to flee the city to avoid the scandal.
Dillon then worked as a mechanic, tow truck driver, and firewatcher during the Second World War. While on fire duty, he suffered an attack of hypoglycemia that hospitalized him. However, quite by chance, this allowed him to make the acquaintance of a sympathetic doctor and one of the world’s first plastic surgeons. The doctor performed a double mastectomy on Dillon and gave him a note so that he could become Laurence Michael Dillon.
Dillon’s surgeon recommended Dr. Harold Gillies, a specialist in genital reconstruction work as the best person to give him a penis. Gillies agreed- once he had dealt with his backlog of injured soldiers needed reconstruction work. In the meantime, Dillon enrolled in medical school.
Between 1946 and 1949, while still studying, Dillon underwent thirteen gender reassignment surgeries. He also wrote the first book about transgender identity: Self: A Study in Endocrinology and Ethics in 1946 which stated: “where the mind cannot be made to fit the body, the body should be made to fit, approximately at any rate, to the mind.”
Dillon was still restricted, however. He cultivated a misogynistic persona to put off girls as he did not want to be involved with a woman because he could not give them children. In 1951, after qualifying, he joined the navy as a ship’s doctor. However, he was forced to flee to India soon after, because of a discrepancy between Debrett’s Peerage (which listed him as a male) and Burkes Peerage (which referred to him as a female) led to the unveiling of his secret.
In India, Dillon found peace, as a Buddhist physician named Jivaka and wrote books on this subject. He died at the age of 47 when he was forced to leave India because of an expired visa.