Deputy First Minister lays wreath bearing Northern Ireland crest in Washington in honour of famous Ulster soldier

Emma Little-Pengelly has led a DUP delegation to Arlington National Cemetery – where they laid a wreath bearing the crest of Northern Ireland in memory of a local soldier.

The poppy wreath was supplied by the Oldpark/Cavehill Branch of the Royal British Legion in Belfast, and was laid on the grave of a famous British Army officer from Co Armagh.

placeholder image — NI deputy first min Emma Little-Pengelly, Stormont Communities minister Gordon Lyons, John W Hunter and other members of the Color Guard of the St. Andrews Society of Washington DC and at the statue to Ulsterman Sir John Dill in Arlington cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington DC

The deputy first minister and Communities Minister Gordon Lyons attended the ceremony yesterday, in honour of Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill. He was born in Lurgan, and a member of a well-known Ulster-Scots family.

The DUP ministers were greeted by a Colour Guard from the St Andrew's Society of Washington DC, comprising UK and US military veterans.

The society was represented at the Belfast Tartan Day in November – and organisers are hopeful that the Colour Guard will participate in a future parade in the Northern Irish capital.

Field Marshal Dill was chief of the Imperial General Staff (the professional head of the British Army) from 1940 to 1941.

He was subsequently posted to Washington DC as Churchill’s personal representative and chief of the British Joint Staff Mission. He worked closely with US counterpart General George Marshall to establish what is now known as the ‘special relationship’.

After his death in November 1944, he was buried in Arlington by Joint Resolution of Congress and is the highest ranking non-American to be buried there.

He was later honoured with a mounted statue, unveiled by President Harry S Truman, one of only two at the National Cemetery.

At the unveiling of Dill's statue in Arlington, President Truman said: “I welcome this opportunity to remind my countrymen that the maintenance of a perfect understanding between the people of Great Britain and the United States is of great importance to the peace of the world – it is of the greatest importance to the peace of the world.

“This statue will stand as a memorial not only to a man but to a remarkable Anglo-American relationship that bore fruit in a great victory – a really great victory.”