
Thomas Symonds (1731-1792) was a British Royal Navy captain who served in the American Revolutionary War.
Biography[]
Thomas Symonds was born in Horringer, Suffolk, England in 1731, the son of an Anglican rector. He entered the Royal Navy as a lieutenant in 1755 and became commander of the sloop HMS Albany in 1762, serving in the Seven Years' War. Symonds lost command of his ship after a failed raid on French landing barges moored in the river Orne on 13 July 1762, but he attained the rank of captain in 1771. Symonds fought at the Battle of Sullivan's Island in 1776 and at the Siege of Yorktown, where he was the most senior naval officer present at Lord Charles Cornwallis' surrender in 1781. After his release, he became captain of the HMS Diadem, and he died in Bury St. Edmunds in 1792.