Identity:

The surname (Dilberoglue or Dilberoglou) indicates that he was of Romanian Greek origin. His wife died shortly before 5 September 1872.

Life:

According to his obituary he was 'an eminent Greek merchant in the city, and one of the Lieutenants of the City of London and a leading member of the Lancashire Cotton Famine Fund, commenced at the Mansion House in the Mayoralty of Mr Cubitt in 1861, and during recent years he renderd valuable assistance in the collection and distribution of the other great charitable funds raised in the city.'

A prominent member of the Greek Orthodox community, Dilberoglou was church warden in 1870 and on the Finance Committee for building the Church of Aghia Sophia set up in 1874. With Whistler's patron, Constantine Ionides, he was one of the group whose supervision of the building of the church to the design of John Oldrid Scott is recorded on the foundation stone.

He was also a member of The Arts Club from 1873 until his death.

Bibliography:

Kelly's London Postal Directory, London; Rogers, G. A. F., The Arts Club and its Members by G. A. F. Rogers with Illustrations by Members of the Club, London, 1920; The Letters of Christina Rossetti, vol. I, 1843-1873, p. 404 n.1; 'The Late Mr Dilberogloue [sic]', The Times, London, 25 April 1878, p. 6; Peattie, Roger W., Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti, The Pennsylvania University Press, University Park, 1990, p. 423 n.4; Constantinides, Michael, The Greek Orthodox Church in London, Oxford, 1933, pp. 49, 55, 61, pl. IX.