Wellington’s brutal general

Those responsible for the greatest crimes are often best placed to avoid punishment. No doubt this is because they hold political and economic power. Sometimes the mighty fall, but rehabilitation may also be easier for them.

I recently came upon an account of the trial of Thomas Picton, governor of Trinidad at the end of the 18th century. In 1806 he was tried before Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough in London and convicted of the torture of a 13 year-old girl, Louisa Calderon.

This was a most unusual case. Violent ill-treatment of the slave population of West Indian colonies was routine and tolerated. It was not until 1811 that a planter was convicted of murdering a slave. Louisa Calderon was not a slave but the descendant of slaves. The title page of the report describes her as “a free Mulatto and one of her Britannic Majesty’s subjects”.

Trinidad was seized by the British from Spain in 1797 and Picton, a rising young