One of Haverfordwest’s most controversial descendants - the ‘rough, foul-mouthed devil’ otherwise known as Thomas Picton – has officially lost his stature after being banished to a side room of the National Museum in Cardiff.

For over 50 years Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), has hung in splendour in the museum’s Grand Faces of Wales gallery.  But this week, after two years of heated debate following Black Lives Matter, he’s been carted off to a side room and placed inside a specially built travel case made of scraps of plywood with a strut, covering his bulging groin area.

This, says the museum’s director of collections and research, Dr Kath Davies, proves his lowly stature in the museum’s hierarchy.

“We believe the packing case symbolises the notion that Picton no longer has a permanent address at Cardiff Museum,” she said.

“It shows that nothing is fixed but is rather a dynamic process. The conversations will continue as we move forward.”

Dr Davies added that she was pleased that the strut hid what she called Picton’s ‘tassels and testosterone’.

Born in Hill Street, Haverfordwest, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton was the highest-ranking British officer who met his demise in the Battle of Waterloo.

Western Telegraph: The house in Hill Street where Sir Thomas Picton was bornThe house in Hill Street where Sir Thomas Picton was born

According to historian Alessandro Barbero, Picton was ‘respected for his courage and feared for his irascible temperament’ however the Duke of Wellington called him ‘a rough, foul-mouthed devil as ever lived’.

Picton came to public attention initially for his alleged cruelty during his governorship of Trinidad (1797–1803), as a result of which he was put on trial in England for approving the illegal torture of a 14-year-old girl, Luisa Calderón. After being accused of theft, Luisa was hung from a scaffold by her wrist for almost an hour, her entire weight being supported on an upturned wooden peg.

Picton has also been lauded remembered his exploits under Wellington in the Iberian Peninsular War of 1807–1814, during which he fought in many engagements, displaying great bravery and persistence.

He was killed in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, during a crucial bayonet charge in which his division stopped d'Erlon's corps' attack against the allied centre left.

He was the most senior officer to die at Waterloo and was also a sitting Member of Parliament at the time of his death.