Captain George Wickham is the secondary antagonist of the television movie Sharpe's Justice.
He was portrayed by Douglas Henshall.
Biography[]
Captain Wickham was an officer in the Scarsdale yeomanry, reporting directly to Sir Willoughby Parfitt. He commanded the yeomanry until Major Richard Sharpe was appointed over him. Wickham and his men met Sharpe and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper when they arrived in the area, escorting them to Parfitt. Along the way, they were nearly ambushed by brigands, with Sharpe killing one of the ambushers. Parfitt blamed the disruption in the area on rabble rouser Matthew Truman. In fact, Parfitt was using Truman as a scapegoat and having Wickham and his men sabotage Parfitt's competitors. Despite this, he also wanted Truman arrested.
At a ball, when Wickham showed off his fencing skills, Lord Stanwyck, who admired Sharpe as a war hero, suggested the two of them fight. However, Sharpe was unused to formal duelling and Wickham defeated him, boasting of it to his and Parfitt's potential ally Lord Rossendale. When news reached them that Truman was making a speech in town, Wickham observed it with Sharpe and Harper. Sharpe told Wickham to send half the men to him with Harper and take the rest down to the square, intending to apprehend Truman in a way that gave the crowd room to disperse safely. Instead, Wickham ordered the men to advance in a way that blocked off the crowd's escape route, then began attacking people at random, resulting in Sharpe and Harper intervening to protect the crowd and Truman escaping.
Wickham went back to Parfitt and claimed that Sharpe's orders led to the massacre. He and his men ambushed Sharpe and Truman after they joined forces and shot Truman several times, with Wickham himself firing the killing shot, although Sharpe, Harper and Daniel Hagman escaped. Wickham had designs on Lady Anne Comoynes, not realising she found him repulsive, and also indulged in innuendo towards Rossendale's lover Jane Gibbons, enraging him.
Parfitt sent Wickham and his men to smash a steam engine being brought for Stanwyck. They killed a number of the escort but were then counterattacked by Sharpe, Harper and Hagman. Sharpe ended up fighting Wickham, who proved no match for a Sharpe who wasn't holding back, being disarmed and having his cheek cut. Stanwyck arrived with a group of dragoons and Wickham tried to blame the deaths on Sharpe but Stanwyck immediately saw through the lie and gave Sharpe permission to finish Wickham off. Sharpe replied that Wickham had done enough to earn a hanging and he wouldn't dirty his sword on him. Sharpe and Stanwyck took Wickham as a prisoner to confront Parfitt.
