Thomas Picton

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Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton (24 August 1758 – 18 June 1815) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars and died at the Battle of Waterloo. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero, Picton was "respected for his courage and feared for his irascible temperament". The Duke of Wellington called him "a rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived", but found him capable. While Picton's military prowess is not in doubt, as a colonial administrator he was considered to be a harsh disciplinarian, even by some at the time. He approved the use of torture during his governorship of Trinidad. He was put on trial in England for approving the picketing of a 14-year-old girl, Luisa Calderón, and convicted. He later had a retrial arguing that Trinidad was subject to Spanish law, in which no judgement was ever reached by the jury. Controversy over Picton's use of torture has revived in recent years, and his role in the Atlantic slave trade has also come...

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