Dear Anita

Michael Dillon was born Laura Maura Dillon on May 1st 1915 in the UK. Growing up Michael Dillon was very uncomfortable with his gender identity and experienced gender dysphoria, feeling more comfortable dressing as a man. It was very difficult for him to seek resources during this time.

He was the first transgender man to receive testosterone and gender affirming surgery to construct a penis (phalloplasty).

At age 24 he received testosterone hormones from Dr. George Foss. He medically transitioned and legally changed  from Laura Maura Dillon to Laurence Michael Dillon in 1939.

During 1942 in Bristol, England, Dr. Foss referred Michael Dillon to Harold Gillies, a plastic surgeon who helped Dillon with a phalloplasty.

After WWII ended in 1945, Michael Dillon completed his studies in Bristol becoming a prominent physician and pioneer in transgender history. Dr. Dillon’s most significant achievement is his book “A study in ethics and endocrinology” which provided medical doctors with care guidelines on how to treat trans patients today.

In 1958, the Daily Express news in the UK realized there was a discrepancy in the person listed as “Laura Dillon” in the aristocratic class and Michael Dillon. Michael Dillon protested that he had long identified as a male and that he still had valid lineage to the aristocratic line of his parents. However he was unsuccessful and discriminated against so he fled to India and became a Buddhist monk. He was the first British person to be ordained as a monk taking the name Jivaka. He felt accepted as a monk but his visa expired so he was forced to leave India.

On May 1, 1962 he completed his autobiography about his transition from female to male and how happy he felt as a transmale. He mailed the autobiography in an envelope and it was long unpublished but never lost. The autobiography titled “Out of the Ordinary: A life of gender and spiritual transitions” arrived from India to the desk of the publisher John Johnson in London where it was finally published in 2017.

Michael Dillon’s death cause is unknown since he died at the age of 47 in Dalhousie hospital. Some people speculate he might have been poisoned since no one in his family seemed to have accepted his transition.

Alex Ashcroft, “Michael Dillon: the 2 laws which could have saved him” Feb. 18th 2021 lgbtlawyers.co.uk

Michael Dillon “Out of the Ordinary: A Life of Gender and Spiritual Transitions” 2017 transreads.org