Thomas Trigge

Sir Thomas Trigg(e)
Trigge in the commemorative painting of The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789
Born	c.1742
Died	11 January 1814 London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Seven Years' War
Awards	Knight of the Order of the Bath

General Sir Thomas Trigg(e) KB fought during the Seven Years' War and commanded the 12th Regiment of Foot during the Great Siege of Gibraltar and was briefly a Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar. He captured Suriname and several of the Leeward Islands.

Life

Trigg(e) was born in about 1742 and joined the army early as an Ensign in the 12th Regiment of Foot and served during the Seven Years' War where he was in Germany.^[1] He was at the battles in Minden, Villinghausen and the Wilhelmsthal.

Trigge commanded the 12th Regiment during the Great Siege of Gibraltar and was included in a commemorative painting. Charles Holloway, George Koehler and Mackenzie are amongst those recorded as the principal officers serving in the siege which was painted by George Carter for the City of London. The National Portrait Gallery^[2] have a gouache sketch but the final painting is at the National Army Museum. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth in September 1790 which came with the additional post of General Officer Commanding South-West District from 1793.^[3]

The Sortie from Gibraltar by John Trumbull (1789).

While Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies, a joint Army and Navy expedition under Lieutenant-General Trigge and Vice-Admiral Seymour captured Suriname from the Dutch on August 20, 1799. In March 1801, Trigge and Rear-Admiral Duckworth captured St. Martin (a Franco-Dutch possession), St. Bartholomew (Swedish), and St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix (Danish).^[4] For his successes, he was made a Knight of the Bath.^[1]

In May 1802 Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, arrived in Gibraltar as Governor with expectations that he would instil order in the garrison, where the troops were frequently drunken and ill disciplined. The Prince was enthusiastic and keen but his approach did not impress the troops and mutiny ensued. The Prince was able to keep order but he ignored the orders from his brother to return home until he felt that he had issued sufficient new rules. Eventually the Prince left Gibraltar, never to return and although he nominally remained the Governor it was Major General Trigge who was briefly the first in a long line of acting Lieutenant Governors. One of Trigge's first acts as acting Governor was to countermand 35 of the 169 new regulations his predecessor had introduced.^[5]

Trigge died aged 72 on 11 January 1814 in Savile Row. His achievements are recorded on a memorial in Westminster Abbey.^[1] On Gibraltar there is a Trigge Road.

References

1. An Historical Description of Westminster Abbey: Its Monuments and Curiosities. A. K. Newman and Company. 1827. p. 183.
2. Carter, George. "The Siege of Gibraltar, 1782". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
3. The London Gazette: no. 13237. p. 573. 14 September 1790.
4. Norie, John William (1827). The naval gazetteer, biographer, and chronologist. pp. 22, 394.
5. Jackson, Sir William G. F (1990). The Rock of the Gibraltarians : a history of Gibraltar (2nd ed.). Grendon: Gibraltar Books. p. 195 & 228. ISBN 0948466146.