Thomas Picton (24 August 1758 – 18 June 1815) was a general of the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars. Known for his irascible temperament, his foul-mouthed language, and for his cruelty, Picton was also known as an able general. Picton was killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Biography[]
Picton was from Pembrokeshire in Wales, and he served in the French Revolutionary Wars in the Caribbean theater, briefly serving as Governor of Trinidad; he became renowned for his cruelty there. Later, he fought in the Peninsular War as a Lieutenant General, and he fought in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo under Viscount Wellington in 1812. Picton played a major role in the campaigns in Spain during the war, and Picton was the general who defeated Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's army at the Battle of Cuenca in 1811. He later took part in the campaign against Napoleon in 1815, and he was wounded in the hip at the Battle of Quatre Bras. On 18 June 1815, at the climactic Battle of Waterloo, he was shot through the temple by a musket ball while leading a British charge against Jean-Baptiste Drouet's force at La Haye Sainte.
