A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Groube, Thomas
GROUBE. (Captain, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 35.)
Thomas Groube entered the Navy, in June, 1793, as A.B., on board the Leviathan 74, Capt. Lord Hugh Seymour, and in the course of the same year was present at the investment of Toulon. In Feb. 1794, he became Midshipman of the Arethusa 38, Capt. Sir Edw. Pellew; under whom, when in company with other ships, he successively witnessed the rapture of La Pomone of 44 guns and 341 men, Le Babet of 22 guns and 178 men, L’Engageante of 38 guns and 300 men, and La Révolutionnaire of 44 guns and 351 men. On his removal with the same officer to the Indefatigable of 46 guns, he further assisted at the capture of L’Unité of 38 guns and 265 men, and La Virginie of 44 guns and 340 men; besides contributing, in company with the Amazon 36, to the destruction, with a loss to the Indefatigable of 19 men wounded, of Les Droits de l’Homme 74. On 21 Aug. 1799, a few months after he had accompanied Sir Edw. Pellew into the Impétueux 74, Mr. Groube was appointed a Lieutenant of that ship, and he continued to be borne on her books until April, 1802; previously to which period he had been taken by a French privateer, while in charge of a prize-brig, but not until after a brave defence. He subsequently, on 11 March, 1803, rejoined his patron on board the Tonnant 80, commanded afterwards by Capt. Wm. Henry Jervis, with whom he served until his health obliged him to invalid in Feb. 1805. In the following Oct. he was appointed to the Woolwich 44, armée en flûte, and sailed for the East Indies, where he was nominated, 13 Aug. 1806, First-Lieutenant of the Culloden 74, then flag-ship of his friend Sir Edw. Pellew, and where, on 27 of the ensuing Nov., he commanded a division of boats at the capture and destruction of a Dutch frigate, seven brigs of war, and about 20 armed and other merchant-vessels lying in Batavia Roads. In the course of 1807 we find him successively placed by his Admiral in command of the Psyche and Dover ships-of-war, and Victor sloop; in which latter vessel he co-operated in the further annihilation of the dockyard and stores at Griessee, in the island of Java, and of all the naval force remaining to Holland in the East Indies. From Oct. 1808 until Jan. 1811, he next had charge of the Marine Hospital at Madras; after which, having been officially advanced to the rank of Commander, by commission dated 31 July, 1809, he joined, 29 June, 1812, the Calypso brig, stationed in the Baltic. For his services in that vessel, particularly at the siege of Danzig in 1813, Capt. Groube, whom we previously find conveying Lord Walpole to St. Petersburg, was promoted to Post-rank 7 June, 1814. His acceptance of the Retirement took place 1 Oct. 1846.
He married, 17 March, 1810, Mrs. Watson, daughter of the late Jas. Dudson, Esq.