Thomas Graves (23 October 1725 – 9 February 1802) was commander-in-chief of the North American Station of Great Britain's Royal Navy in 1781, succeeding Mariot Arbuthnot and preceding Robert Digby.
Biography[]
Thomas Graves was born on 23 October 1725 in Cornwall, England, and he enlisted in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Graves was court-martialled for not engaging a French Navy ship during the Seven Years' War, and he was reprimanded. In 1762, he helped Alexander Colville and William Amherst in the recapture of St. John's in Newfoundland at the end of the war, and he served as governor of the island. In 1781, he saw active service in the American Revolutionary War when he replaced Mariot Arbuthnot as the commander-in-chief of the North American Station, and he was defeated at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, leading to the disaster at the Siege of Yorktown. Graves was replaced, but in the French Revolutionary Wars he served under Richard Howe at the Glorious First of June in 1794 as his second-in-command. Graves died at the age of 76 in 1802.