Admiral of the White Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, KB (23 October 1725 – 9 February 1802) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who served in the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence. He also served as the Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland from 1761 to 1764.Article by Kenneth Breen, ‘Graves, Thomas, first Baron Graves (1725–1802)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008; Retrieved 4 June 2008.
Military career
Born in England in October 1725, Graves was the second son of Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves of Thanckes in Cornwall.Historic Cornwall website: Thanckes estate near Torpoint. Graves' first military experience was as a volunteer with Commodore Henry Medley's crew around 1740. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1743, and captain in 1755. In the first year of the Seven Years' War, Graves failed to confront a French ship which gave challenge. He was tried by court-martial for not engaging his ship, and reprimanded. Graves became Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland in 1761 and given the duty of convoying the seasonal fishing fleet from England to the island. In 1762 he learned that French ships had captured St. John's. Graves, Admiral Alexander Colville and Colonel William Amherst retook the port city.
With the end of the Seven Years' War, Labrador came under his responsibility as French fishing fleets returned to the French Shore and St. Pierre and Miquelon. Graves strictly enforced the treaties to the extent that the French government protested. Graves' governorship ended in 1764. He returned to active service during the American War of Independence, being promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 19 March 1779, Rear-Admiral of the White on 19 March 1780 and Rear-Admiral of the Red on 26 September. Graves became commander-in-chief of the North American Squadron in 1781 when Mariot Arbuthnot returned home.
On 5 September 1781, a fleet under Graves was defeated by a French fleet led by the Comte de Grasse in the Battle of the Chesapeake at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, leading to the surrender of a besieged British army under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown not long afterwards. In September 1782, a fleet under his command was caught in a violent storm off the banks of Newfoundland. The captured French ships from the Battle of the Saintes (110 guns) and (74 guns), and the British ships (74 guns) and (74 guns) foundered, along with other merchant ships, with the loss of 3,500 lives. In 1786 Graves became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 24 September 1787 and Vice-Admiral of the Red on 1 February 1793.
During the French Revolutionary Wars, Graves was promoted to Admiral of the Blue on 12 April 1794 and served as the second-in-command to Admiral of the Blue Richard Howe, Earl Howe at the Glorious First of June on 1 June, suffering a severe injury to his right arm. Following the battle, Graves was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Graves of Gravesend on 24 October.London Gazette no. 13727. p. 1178 However, his wound led to the end of Graves' active career and he retired to estate in Devon. Graves was promoted to Admiral of the White on 1 June 1795.
Personal life Lord Graves married Elizabeth, daughter of William Peere Williams, in 1771. The couple had a son, Thomas, in 1775. Following several battle injuries, Graves retired to his Devon estate in 1794, and died in February 1802, aged 76.
Arms
See also Governors of Newfoundland List of people of Newfoundland and Labrador
Notes
References Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
External links Biography at Government House The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador