A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Graham, Philip
GRAHAM. (Commander, 1825. f-p., 19; h-p., 25.)
Philip Graham, born at Stonehouse, co. Devon, is son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Rich. Graham, R.M.; and only brother of the present Capt. Fortescue Graham, R.M. He is a relative of the Marchioness of Thomond.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Rambler sloop, Capt. Thos. Innes, employed on the Home station. On his return from a subsequent voyage with convoy to Quebec, whither he had gone as Midshipman of the Uranie 38, Capt. Hon. Chas. Herbert, he joined the Prince of Wales 98, successive flagship of Admirals Edw. Thornbrough, Sir Jas. Saumarez, and Jas. Gambier, under the latter of whom he attended the expedition of 1807 to Copenhagen. He then returned to Portsmouth on board the Waldemaar, one of the captured 80’s, commanded by Capt. Andw. King, but, soon rejoining Lord Gambier, continued to serve with that officer, in the Ville de Paris 110, and Caledonia 120, until after the destruction of the French shipping in Aix Roads in April, 1809. During the proximate siege of Flushing, we find Mr. Graham, who had just passed his examination, employed as a volunteer with the Scheldt flotilla. Being next ordered to Lisbon, he there, as Acting-Lieutenant, assumed the command, 28 Feb. 1810, of the Triton hospital-ship, an appointment which the Admiralty confirmed by commission dated on 14 of the following April. In the autumn of the same year, shortly after his removal to the Zealous 74, Capt. Thos. Boys, he took voluntary command of several armed boats, and was sent up the Tagus to co-operate with the British troops at Alhandra, where he served with the present Capt. M. F. F. Berkeley, from the very day on which Wellington first occupied the lines of Torres Vedras until Masséna had retreated to Santarem. His subsequent appointments, after further cruizing In the Zealous on the North Sea and Baltic stations, were – 17 June, 1813, to the Blenheim 74, Capt. Sam. Warren, whom he accompanied to the Mediterranean – 27 Aug. 1814, to the Namur 74, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Williams at Sheerness – 29 Oct. 1814, to the Comus 22, Capt. John Tailour, which ship, after assisting at the capture, in,spite of a desperate resistance, of seven Spanish and Portuguese slavers on the coast of Africa, he left 1 Nov. 1815 – and, 14 Sept. 1818, to the Coast Blockade, in which service he officiated, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Severn 50, and Ramillies 74, both commanded by Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, until May, 1825. He was promoted to his present rank 29 July following, but does not appear to have been since employed.
Commander Graham, in 1830, was presented with the gold medallion of the Royal Institution for Preserving Lives from Shipwreck, for his intrepidity in having saved the master and part of the crew of the brig Mountaineer, wrecked near Deal, on her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to London. Agents – Copland and Burnett.