Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Maitland (10 March 1760 – 17 January 1824) was a British Army officer, politician and colonial administrator.

Maitland realised that his forces were quickly dying in droves due to yellow fever, and he began to negotiate a retreat with the Haitian leader, Toussaint Louverture.

Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who was the Secretary of State for War for prime minister William Pitt the Younger, had instructed Sir Adam Williamson, the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, to sign an agreement with representatives of the French colonists that promised to restore the ancien regime, slavery and discrimination against mixed-race colonists, a move that drew criticism from abolitionists William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson.

[1][2] Elkins and McKitrick[3] write: It was in fact Maitland and not the War Ministry who had determined that Britain's only sensible choice, rather than try to maintain any kind of presence at Jérémie and Môle-Saint-Nicolas, was to deal directly with Louverture and negotiate a total evacuation of the island.

Great Britain would desist from any further attack on St. Domingue and any interference with its internal affairs; Louverture made a similar promise with regard to Jamaica; and Maitland would see that provisions were allowed to reach the ports of St. Domingue without interference from British cruisers.In May 1799, Maitland returned to Saint-Domingue to negotiate an extension of the agreement with Louverture.

During this time, Maitland fell in love with a mixed race dancing-girl named Lovina, who had been born to Portuguese and Sinhalese parents.

To prevent Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet from sending French reinforcements from the east coast of Spain, Wellington requested that Lord William Bentinck launch a diversionary operation using the British garrison of Sicily.

After much persuasion, he allowed the operation to go forward and on 7 June he put 8,000 men aboard naval transports under the command of Maitland.

The fleet first picked up 6,000 Spanish troops at Menorca and landed on 31 July at Palamós, 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Barcelona.

[9] Maitland soon received news that Joseph O'Donnell's Army of Murcia had been routed at the Battle of Castalla on 21 July.

[12] Maitland became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in May 1813[13] and was then appointed as Governor of Malta on 23 July, when the island became a crown colony instead of a protectorate.

[15] On Malta, he was autocratic and he refused to form an advisory council made up of Maltese representatives, and so he was informally known as "King Tom".