Attacked by heavy masses of French infantry, a desperate struggle ensued; and Picton, bringing up his second brigade, placed himself at its head, and, waving them on with his sword, cried: ‘Charge! Hurrah! hurrah!’ At this moment a ball struck him on the temple, and he fell back dead. Captain Tyler, his aide-de-camp, placed his body beneath a tree, where he could readily find it when the battle was over, and rejoined the division.
Picton's remains were conveyed to Deal, where they were landed with every demonstration of public mourning. At Canterbury the body lay in the room of the Fountain Inn, where a fortnight before Picton had been entertained by his friends. The funeral took place from his house, 21 Edward Street, Portman Square, on 3 July, and he was buried in the family vault in the burial-ground of St. George's, Hanover Square, in the Bayswater Road.
In accordance with a resolution of the House of Commons, a public monument was erected to Picton's memory in the west side of the north transept of St. Paul's Cathedral. The monument, which is by Sebastian Gahagan, has a bust of Picton on the summit of a marble column, with an emblematic group representing, fame, genius, and courage. In 1828 a costly monument was erected to Picton's memory at Carmarthen by public subscription, the king contributing one hundred guineas. Thomas Moore, the poet, wrote in Picton's honour the poem commencing ‘Oh, give to the hero the death of the brave.’ A portrait of Picton, painted by Sir M. A. Shee, is in the National Portrait Gallery; another, by Sir William Beechey, belongs to the Duke of Wellington.
In private life Picton was warm in his friendships but strong in his enmities. He had a very strict sense of honour, which would not brook the petty deceptions of society. His manners were brusque, and his speech blunt and without respect of persons. He was a capable administrator. As a soldier, he was a stern disciplinarian, cold in manner, calm in judgment, yet when excited overwhelmed with passion. With the foresight of a born commander, possessing considerable power of combination, strong nerve, and undaunted courage, he proved himself Wellington's right hand in the Peninsula.
[Despatches; Robinson's Memoirs of Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Picton, G.C.B., &c., 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1836; Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France, from 1807 to 1814, 6 vols. 8vo; Napier's English Battles and Sieges in the Peninsula, 8vo; Lord Londonderry's Narrative of the War, 4to, London, 1830; Batty's Campaign in the Western Pyrenees and South of France in 1813–14, 4to, London, 1823; History of British Campaigns in Spain and Portugal, 4 vols. 8vo, 1812; Foy's Histoire de la Guerre de la Péninsule, 4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1827; Jones's Sieges in Spain between 1811 and 1814, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1846; Jones's Wars in Spain, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1818; Southey's History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols. 4to, London, 1823–32; Suchet's Mémoires sur les Campagnes en Espagne depuis 1808 jusqu'à 1814, 2 vols. Paris, 1828; The Battle of Waterloo, also of Ligny and Quatre Bras, by a Near Observer, 2 vols. 8vo London, 1817; Siborne's History of the Waterloo Campaign, 1815, with Details of Battles of Quatre Bras, Ligny, Wavre, and Waterloo, 8vo, London.]
PIDDING, HENRY JAMES (1797–1864), humorous artist, born in London in 1797, was son of a stationer and lottery-office keeper at No. 1 Cornhill. He is said to have been a pupil of Azilo, a painter of domestic scenes. Pidding attained some note by his paintings of humorous subjects from domestic life, and was a very prolific exhibitor at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street, of which society he was elected a member in 1843. He also exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and various local exhibitions. About 1860 he attempted to make a sensation with a larger painting of ‘The Gaming Rooms at Homburg.’ Several of his pictures were engraved, some by his own hand in mezzotint, such as ‘The Greenwich Pensioners’ (now at Woburn Abbey), ‘Massa out, Sambo very dry’ (formerly in the collection of Lord Charles Townshend), ‘A Negro in the Stocks,’ ‘A Fair Penitent,’ &c. In 1836 Pidding etched a series of six humorous illustrations to ‘The Rival Demons,’ an anonymous poem. Pidding resided at Greenwich, where he died on 13 June 1864, aged 67.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Ottley's Dict of Recent and Living Painters; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
PIDDINGTON, HENRY (1797–1858), meteorologist, second son of James Piddington of Uckfield, was bred in the mercantile marine, apparently in the East India and China trade, and was for some time commander of a ship. About 1830 he retired from the sea, being appointed curator of the Museum of Economic Geology in Calcutta, and sub-secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1831 and the following years he published several short geological or mineralogical notes in the ‘Journal’ of the society, and in 1839 began a series of memoirs on the storms of the Indian seas, which was to lead to very positive results. His
