30 Facts About Thomas Picton

Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton was a British Army officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

Thomas Picton came to public attention initially for his cruelty during his governorship of Trinidad, as a result of which he was put on trial in England for approving the illegal torture of a 14-year-old girl, Luisa Calderon.

Thomas Picton was killed in 1815 fighting at the Battle of Waterloo, during a crucial bayonet charge in which his division stopped d'Erlon's corps' attack against the allied centre left.

Thomas Picton was the most senior officer to die at Waterloo.

Thomas Picton was a sitting Member of Parliament at the time of his death.

Thomas Picton was the seventh of 12 children of Thomas Picton of Poyston Hall, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and his wife, Cecil nee Powell.

The regiment was disbanded five years later, and Thomas Picton quelled a mutiny amongst the men by his prompt personal action and courage, and was promised the rank of major as a reward.

Thomas Picton did not receive it, and after living in retirement on his father's estate for nearly 12 years, he went out to the West Indies in 1794 on the strength of a slight acquaintance with Sir John Vaughan, the commander-in-chief, who made him his aide-de-camp and gave him a captaincy in the 17th Regiment of Foot.

Thomas Picton ensured order by vigorous action, viewed variously as rough-and-ready justice or as arbitrary brutality.

Thomas Picton was accused of the execution of a dozen slaves.

Thomas Picton was making money from speculation in land and slaves, and his free coloured mistress and mother of four of his children, Rosetta Smith, was believed to be corruptly influencing his decisions.

Thomas Picton came from a wealthy and long-established Scots land-owning family and was a Whig MP, a Fellow of the Royal Society, an improving landlord, and a patron of Robert Burns.

Thomas Picton had been a junior diplomat before raising a regiment in the course of the American War of Independence, of which he naturally became the Colonel.

Thomas Picton ended that war in India, commanding an army of 14,000 men in operations against Tippu Sultan.

Thomas Picton joined Hood in military operations in Saint Lucia and Tobago, before returning to Britain to face charges brought by Fullarton.

Thomas Picton did not confess and was imprisoned for a further eight months before being released.

Thomas Picton promptly sought a retrial, which he got in 1808.

At this, Thomas Picton's counsel stressed that the use of torture had been requested by the local magistrate, that there were copious authorities showing its legality under Spanish law, and that Calderon had been old enough to be legally tortured.

Thomas Picton contributed the same sum to a relief fund after a widespread fire in Port of Spain.

Thomas Picton had meanwhile been promoted major-general, and in 1809 he had been governor of Flushing in the Netherlands during the Walcheren expedition.

In 1810, at Wellington's request, Thomas Picton was appointed to command a division in Spain.

The commander-in-chief never reposed in him the confidence that he gave to Beresford, Hill and Robert Craufurd but in the resolute, thorough and punctual execution of a well-defined task Thomas Picton had no superior in the army.

Thomas Picton's debut, owing partly to his naturally stern and now embittered temper, and partly to the difficult position in which he was placed, was unfortunate.

Shortly after this at Busaco, Thomas Picton succeeded in driving French forces across a ravine in considerable disorder.

Thomas Picton was himself wounded in this terrible engagement, but would not leave the ramparts, and the day after, having recently inherited a fortune, he gave every survivor of his command a guinea.

At the Battle of Vitoria, Thomas Picton led his division across a key bridge under heavy fire.

On subsequent examination, Thomas Picton's body was found to have suffered a serious musket ball wound to the hip at Quatre Bras on the 16th.

Thomas Picton was interred in the family vault at St George's, Hanover Square.

Thomas Picton is memorialised in St Michael's Church, Rudbaxton in Pembrokeshire, the parish in which he grew up.

Thomas Picton's trial is depicted in episode three of the third series of the 2011 television series Garrow's Law; Thomas Picton is played by Patrick Baladi.