Thomas Picton

, marked with a commemorative blue plaque. The house later became the Dragon Hotel. Thomas Picton was the seventh of 12 children of Thomas Picton (1723–1790) of Poyston Hall, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and his wife, Cecil née Powell (1728–1806). He was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire on (probably) 24 August 1758. The regiment was disbanded five years later, and Picton quelled a mutiny amongst the men by his prompt personal action and courage, and was promised the rank of major as a reward. He 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. Shortly afterwards he was promoted major in the 58th Regiment of Foot. ==Career in the New World==

Under Sir Ralph Abercromby, who succeeded Vaughan in 1795, Picton was present at the capture of Saint Lucia (after which he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 56th Regiment of Foot) and then that of St Vincent. In October 1801 he was gazetted to the local rank of brigadier-general. During the negotiations leading to the Peace of Amiens of 1802, many of the British inhabitants petitioned against the return of the island to Spain; this together with Picton's and Abercromby's representations, ensured the retention of Trinidad as a British possession. Rosetta Smith, was believed to be corruptly influencing his decisions. Furthermore, Trinidad no longer faced any external threat, the Pitt ministry had fallen and the new Addington administration did not want Trinidad to develop the plantation economy Picton favoured. In 1802, William Fullarton (1754–1808) was appointed as the Senior Member of a commission to govern the island, Samuel Hood became the second member, and Picton himself the junior. Afterwards he had written an influential pamphlet arguing that the East India Company had brought trouble on itself by its unprincipled treatment of native princes and native subjects, and that a more humane policy would be preferable to "let them hate so long as they fear" (a favourite motto of Caligula). Picton's policy with respect to various sections of the island population had effectively been one of rule by fear, and he and Fullarton rapidly fell out. (This, of itself, further worsened the rift: Fullarton's Indian pamphlet had also reported adversely on conflicts of interest and dissension between the English having weakened their ability to govern well, to negotiate effectively, and to effectively defend their possessions.) Fullarton commenced a series of open enquiries on allegations against Picton and reported his unfavourable views on Picton's past actions at length to meetings of the commission. Picton thereupon tendered his resignation on 31 May 1803. ==Arrest and trials==

Picton joined Hood in military operations in Saint Lucia and Tobago, before returning to Britain to face charges brought by Fullarton. In December 1803 he was arrested by order of the Privy Council and promptly released on bail set at £40,000. or "the state of the garrison" (martial law) justified the immediate execution in the cases specified eventually carried the day. being tortured, as illustrated in one of the many prints at the time Picton was, however, tried in the Court of King's Bench before Lord Ellenborough in 1806 on a single charge: the misdemeanour of having in 1801 caused torture to be unlawfully inflicted to extract a confession from Luisa Calderón, a 14-year-old free mulatto girl suspected of assisting one of her lovers to burgle the house of the man with whom she was living, making off with about £500. Torture (but not the specific form) had been requested in writing by a local magistrate and approved in writing by Picton. The torture applied ("picketing") was a version of a British military punishment and consisted in principle of compelling the trussed-up suspect to stand on one toe on a flat-headed peg for one hour on many occasions within a span of a few days. Calderón was subjected to one session of 55 minutes, and a second of 25 minutes the following day. The young girl was suspended by one arm on a pulley rope set in the ceiling and lowered onto a peg in the floor, bare foot first. This continued until her entire body weight rested on the peg. She did not confess and was imprisoned for a further eight months before being released. of the nature and duration of her picketing. The legal arguments, however, revolved on whether Spanish law permitted torture of suspects. On the evidence presented by the prosecution and with Picton's defence being damaged by the cross-examination of his witnesses ("Mr Bourville was examined relative to the nature of the office of alkald, or justice at Trinidad. On his cross examination by William Garrow, he said, the first introduction of torture was by General Picton." ... "Mr Gloucester, the Attorney-General at Trinidad, verified several books as books of authority, in which it was expressly laid down, that by the Spanish law torture might be inflicted; these books were, the Borvillia, the Curia Phillipion, and the Elesando. On his cross-examination he admitted that the Caedula and Raecopilazione were also books of authority. They contained a code expressly applicable to the Spanish West India Islands, and there was not a word about torture in them"); They therefore reversed the verdict of the earlier trial but asked for the full court to consider the further argument of the prosecution that torture of a free person was so repugnant to the laws of England that Picton must have known he could not permit it, whatever Spanish law authorised. The court ordered that Picton's obligations to the court be postponed until the court could consider the matter further but no judgment was ever delivered. Friends of Picton in the military and among slave owners subscribed towards his legal expenses. Picton contributed the same sum to a relief fund after a widespread fire in Port of Spain. He had meanwhile been promoted major-general, and in 1809 he had been governor of Flushing in the Netherlands during the Walcheren expedition. ==European military service==

In 1810, at Wellington's request, Picton was appointed to command a division in Spain. Wellington recalled that he had been recommended by General Miranda, who considered him "extremely clever", but also did not trust him, because "he has so much vanity that if you sent him out to the Caraccas or the West India Islands, he would attempt to become the prince of them". Wellington commented when he met Picton, For the remaining years of the Peninsular War, Picton was one of Wellington's principal subordinates. 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 Picton had no superior in the army. His debut, owing partly to his naturally stern and now embittered temper, and partly to the difficult position in which he was placed, was unfortunate. On the River Coa in July 1810 Craufurd's division became involved in an action, and Picton, his nearest neighbour, refused to support him, as Wellington's direct orders were to avoid an engagement. Shortly after this, however, at Busaco, Picton succeeded in driving French forces across a ravine in considerable disorder. In the first operations of 1812 Picton and Craufurd, side by side, stormed the two breaches of Ciudad Rodrigo. Both Craufurd and Picton's second in command, Major-General Henry MacKinnon, were mortally wounded in the engagement. At Badajoz, a month later, the successful storming of the fortress was due to his daring self-reliance and penetration in converting the secondary attack on the castle, delivered by the 3rd Division, into a real one. He 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. His wound, and an attack of fever, compelled him to return to Britain to recoup his health, but he reappeared at the front in April 1813. While in Britain he was invested with the collar and badge of a Knight of the Order of the Bath by the Prince Regent George, and in June he was made a lieutenant-general in the army. At this time, Picton purchased the Iscoed estate in Carmarthenshire, and was returned triumphantly as Member of Parliament for Pembroke Boroughs at a by-election on 19 March 1813. At the Battle of Vitoria, Picton led his division across a key bridge under heavy fire. According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummeling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannon and a counter-attack on their right flank (which was still open because they had captured the bridge so quickly) causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) as they held their ground. The conduct of the 3rd division under his leadership at Vittoria and in the engagements in the Pyrenees raised his reputation as a resolute and skilful fighting general to a still higher point. Early in 1814 he was offered, but after consulting Wellington declined, the command of the British forces operating on the side of Catalonia. On the break-up of the division the officers presented Picton with a valuable service of plate, and on 24 June 1814 he received for the seventh time the thanks of the House of Commons for his great services. Somewhat to his disappointment he was not included amongst the generals who were raised to the peerage, but early in 1815 he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). ==Death==

When Napoleon returned from Elba, Picton, at Wellington's request, accepted a high command in the Anglo-Dutch army, and was appointed commander of the 5th Infantry Division. Along with every other senior officer in the army, he was invited to the Duchess of Richmond's Ball that was held on 15 June. On 18 June, at Waterloo, when Napoleon sent in the Comte d'Erlon's Corps to attack the Anglo-allied centre near La Haye Sainte at 13:30, Picton launched a bayonet charge on the advancing French column. While repulsing the attack with impetuous valour – his last words were "Charge! Charge! Hurrah! Hurrah!" – he was shot through the temple with a musket ball. His body arrived in Deal in Kent on 25June to a salute from the guns of the ships moored in The Downs. It reached Canterbury the same evening and was deposited in a room at the Fountain Inn where Picton had dined on his way to the Continent. At 6:00 am on 26June, to the strains of the "Dead March" in Saul, the funeral procession accompanied by the 52nd Regiment of Foot with reversed arms moved off towards London where it arrived on 3July. ==Burial and monuments==

He was interred in the family vault at St George's, Hanover Square. A public monument was erected to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral, by order of Parliament, and in 1823 another Picton Monument was erected at Carmarthen by subscription, the king contributing a hundred guineas. On 8 June 1859, his body was re-interred in St Paul's Cathedral, lying close to the body of the Duke of Wellington. There is also a monument on the battlefield of Waterloo. ==Namings in his honour==

;Places • The town of Picton in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada • The town of Picton, New Zealand. • Picton, New South Wales, a town named by Picton's military colleague, Lachlan Macquarie • Picton Junction, Western Australia was named by Waterloo veterans who settled the southwest of Western Australia • Picton Island, at the east entrance of the Beagle Channel in Chile, South America; named by Robert Fitzroy and Phillip Parker King ;Roads • Picton Road, Abersychan, Wales • Picton Road, Rhoose, Wales • Picton Street, Griffithstown, Wales • Picton Street, Brighton, England • Picton Terrace, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales • Picton Terrace, Carmarthen, Wales • Picton Road, a highway in Australia • Picton Street, Howick, Auckland, New Zealand • Picton Avenue, Riccarton, Christchurch, New Zealand • Picton Street, Montpelier, Bristol. There is also a double-bayed villa in the street named Picton Lodge. • Picton Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago ;Public houses • The General Picton Inn in Porthcawl • The General Picton, 134 Cardiff Road, Aberaman, Aberdare • The General Picton in Picton Place, Nantyffyllon, Maesteg. The sign bears an image of Sir Thomas. The area also contains a Picton Street named after him; he owned a large amount of land in the area. • The Picton is a public house in Commercial Road, Newport. The sign depicts Sir Thomas in military uniform resting the blade of his sword upon his left shoulder. ;Other • Picton Barracks, Bulford Camp, Wiltshire – the headquarters of the British Army's 3rd Division since 1992 • Picton Barracks, Carmarthen, Wales • , a Royal Navy monitor launched in 1915 • The Rhymney Brewery in Rhymney, South Wales, produces a cask ale named General Picton • The Picton, a boys' boarding house at Wellington College, Berkshire, a private school • Picton House, a house at Haverfordwest Grammar School (closed 1978), Picton's old school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire • Sir Thomas Picton School (Ysgol Sir Thomas Picton), a mixed comprehensive school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales – closed 2018. • Picton Monument, Carmarthen, Wales • Picton Arcade, Swansea. A covered city centre shopping area linking the Kingsway and Oxford Street. • Picton House, Alameda Estate, Gibraltar. • Fort Picton (St David's Tower), Laventille Hills, Port of Spain, Trinidad. This structure has been described as a Martello tower. ==In fiction==

In the 1970 Soviet-Italian epic film, Waterloo, Picton was played by the English actor Jack Hawkins. Picton's trial is depicted in episode three of the third series of the 2011 television series ''Garrow's Law''; Picton is played by Patrick Baladi. ==Likenesses==

• Oil portrait (c1812) of Sir Thomas Picton by Sir Martin Archer Shee, in the National Portrait Gallery. • Oil portrait (c1815) by Sir William Beechey, at Apsley House, London. • Bust (1816) by Sebastian Gahagan, in St Paul's Cathedral. • Lithograph by an anonymous artist of Sir Thomas Picton on horseback (1815), in the National Portrait Gallery. • Serravezza marble statue (1916) of Sir Thomas Picton by Thomas Mewburn Crook in Cardiff City Hall, one of a series entitled "Heroes of Wales". :In June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Dan De'Ath, and the leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas, supported calls to remove the City Hall statue on account of Picton's links to slavery. In July, the Council voted to remove the statue. • In November 2021 National Museum Cardiff removed from display a portrait of Picton by Shree which had been in its collection since 1907, due to his record in Trinidad. In August 2022, the portrait, which had previously formed part of the "Faces of Wales" gallery, was put back on display in an exhibition called "Reframing Picton" and was surrounded by descriptions of his brutal treatment of the people of Trinidad. == References ==