Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Sadras in February 1782 during the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of Trincomalee in September 1782 during the Anglo-French War. He commanded the third-rate Culloden at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He went on to be First Naval Lord and then served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was one of the opening battles of the Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808), as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, where a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a greatly superior Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.