Brigadier-General (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Hugh Lyle Carmichael, 2nd West India Regiment of Foot, 1809 (c)

Oil on canvas, artist unknown, 1809 (c).

Carmichael (1764-1813) wears brigadier general's uniform, and the paper or map in his right hand probably indicates his service in the Expedition to St Domingo in 1809.

Carmichael was quick to recognise the great value of black troops in the West Indies. In 1797 he wrote that black soldiers were not only crucial militarily, but they even had to carry British officers over the rocky landscape in Grenada. He also campaigned for slave soldiers to be able to give evidence at military courts; previously they had only been able to speak at slave courts. In 1812 Carmichael was appointed Governor of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) and died there two years later.