In a profile piece in the Review of Reviews in 1901 Emile Joseph Dillon was described as 'an artist in temperament, a journalist by instinct, a scholar and philosopher by choice, a statesman in ambition'. Dillon was never destined to become one of Ireland's finest foreign correspondents. His father planned a life in the priesthood for his son who was born in Dublin on 21 March 1854. John Baddeley suggested Dillon apply for the vacant post of correspondent with the Daily Telegraph in St Petersburg. Henry Baerlein spent time with Dillon in Bulgaria prior to the outbreak of World War I having made his acquaintance in London in 1903. The possibility of war in the Balkans region had attracted many correspondents including Dillon, and Baerlein seems to have accompanied him as an observer.