Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves

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Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves (painting by Francesco Bartolozzi after an engraving by James Northcote , after 1794)

Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves KB (born October 23, 1725 in Thanckes, Cornwall , † February 9, 1802 in Cadhay, Devon ) was a British admiral in the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary Wars . He was also temporarily governor of Newfoundland .

Life

Graves was born the second of three sons of Captain and later Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy Thomas Graves. He joined the Navy around 1739 and took part in King George's War , including trips to Newfoundland and the 1741 attack on Cartagena (Colombia). In 1743 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1755 to captain. He served in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and was from 1761 to 1764 Governor ( Commodore Governor ) of the colony of Newfoundland .

In the American War of Independence, he replaced Mariot Arbuthnot as commander of the North America squadron in 1781 . In September of the same year his squadron was defeated by the French fleet under the command of Admiral de Grasse in the naval battle of Chesapeake , which contributed significantly to the surrender of the British Army of the South of General Cornwallis in Yorktown . After the Battle of Les Saintes in April 1782, he was supposed to sail back to England with a fleet of mainly hijacked ships, but lost many of them in a storm off Newfoundland.

In 1787 Graves was promoted to Vice Admiral and was after the outbreak of war with France in 1793 deputy commander of the Canal Fleet under Lord Howe . In the naval battle of the 13th Prairial in 1794 ( Glorious First of June ) he was deputy commander of the British fleet. He retired from active service due to an injury sustained in battle. For his services, especially in this battle, he was raised as Baron Graves to the hereditary Irish nobility and promoted to admiral. He spent his final years at his wife's family home in Devon.

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predecessor Office successor
James Webb Commodore Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland
1761–1763
Hugh Palliser
Mariot Arbuthnot Commander-in-Chief, North American Station
1781
Robert Digby
Mark Milbanke Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth
1786-1790
Sir Richard Bickerton
New title created Baron Graves
1794-1802
Thomas North Graves