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Thomas Bligh, (15 January 1685 – 17 August 1775) was a British military officer, serving in campaigns of the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, and a member of parliament. Bligh's military career had few dramatic highlights, but he played a minor, and unwitting, role^[1] in the resignation of William Pitt as British prime minister in 1761.

Bligh was born the third and youngest son of the Rt. Hon. Thomas Bligh of Rathmore^[2] in the county of Meath, Ireland. He was chosen as a member of parliament for Athboy in 1715. He had a commission in the army as captain, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in a cavalry regiment in 1717.^[3] Bligh led his regiment during the War of Austrian Succession, participating in the battles of Dettingen, Lauffeld and Fontenoy.^[4]

He was promoted to brigadier general in 1745, and took command of the 12th Regiment of Dragoons a year later. He became a major general in 1747 and a lieutenant general in 1754.^[5]

During the Seven Years' War, at the age of 73, Bligh was made the commander in chief of a series of amphibious raids on the French coast that were intended to tie up French troops and relieve the pressure on Britain's ally Prussia, which was then fighting both Austria and France.^[6] Bligh's first assault, on Aug. 5, 1758, was on the city of Cherbourg in Normandy. It was a resounding success, with British troops quickly seizing control of the town for an eight-day riot^[7] of strategic vandalism. But Bligh's next assault, on St. Malo in September in Brittany, known as the Battle of Saint Cast, was nothing like the first. The British were hamstrung by unexpectedly strong French defenses, bad weather and worse planning, and they sustained more than 700 casualties.^[8] Bligh resigned his commission shortly afterward.

The debacle at Saint Cast was not a significant military defeat, but the historian Fred Anderson, in his book Crucible of War (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), ascribes to it two not insignificant effects. One is that the apparent failure of the amphibious-raid strategy convinced Pitt to send troops to continental Europe, a move he had resisted only months earlier, preferring to focus on the conflicts in North America. And Pitt's later reluctance to take steps to preserve Bligh's reputation -- Bligh had strong connections to George III, the Prince of Wales at the time of the attack -- was probably one of the many factors that led to Pitt's resignation as prime minister three years later after George ascended to the throne.

Bligh married Elizabeth Bury on Aug. 19, 1737. They had a son named Thomas, who died as a child. Elizabeth died on March 20, 1759. In October of the following year, Bligh married Frances Jones, but they did not have any children.^[9]

Bligh is buried in Athboy in the same tomb as his sister, Catherine Lehunt.^[10]

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