Dillington House near Ilminster in South Somerset. The country home of the Prime Minister who lost the American colonies.

Dillington House near Ilminster in South Somerset was the country home of Lord North who was Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782.  His half-hearted supervision of the war effort during the American War of Independence led to him being blamed for the loss of the American colonies.



Dillington House in South Somerset

Dillington is now a centre for adult education, conferences, business meetings and weddings. I was fortunate enough to have a seat there at a very well attended lecture by General Sir Michael Rose KCB, CBE, DSO, QGM entitled "Recent Lessons of History". His talk reflected on how, in his opinion, some recent decisions on military interventions were ill-conceived from the very beginning.

I have also read Sir Michael's book Washington's War: From Independence to Iraq published by Phoenix, which is all the more interesting for having heard his lecture. He draws parallels between the mistakes made during the Invasion of Iraq to those of the British in the American War of Independence.  Both wars give examples of too little too late.