Captain George Miller Bligh (1780–1834) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. He was present aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, and was badly wounded during the action. He was taken below and was present in the cockpit at the death of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Bligh was born in 1780, the only son of Richard Rodney Bligh, who was later to become an Admiral, and his first wife Ann Worsley. The younger Bligh followed his father into the navy, joining his father's ship HMS Alexander as a midshipman in 1794. Shortly after this a French squadron captured Alexander in an action on 6 November 1794. Bligh became a prisoner of war at Brest, spending six months there until he was able to escape and return to England. He went on to serve aboard a number of ships, including HMS Brunswick, HMS Agincourt, HMS Quebec, and HMS Endymion. He was promoted to lieutenant while serving aboard Endymion in 1801. He returned to serving aboard the Brunswick after this, before being transferred aboard Nelson's flagship HMS Victory in 1804.
Bligh remained in command of the Pylades for the next three years, distinguishing his time aboard her with the capture of the French privateer Grand Napoleon on 2 May 1808. A few days earlier, on 26 April, Bligh had also captured the French tartane St Honoré, which had been carrying 700 musket barrels and locks.
Bligh was promoted to post-captain on 27 December 1808 and by early 1809 he was aboard HMS Glatton, escorting a convoy back to England from Malta. He was then appointed to the 18-gun sloop HMS Acorn, which was part of the British squadron protecting their base on the island of Lissa. When three suspicious sails were sighted early in the morning of 28 November, the British squadron put to sea, leaving Bligh, in Acorn, in charge of the station while the rest of the squadron fought an action the next day that resulted in a British victory. Bligh was appointed to the frigate HMS Araxes in 1814, and sailed her to serve on the Jamaica station. He returned to Britain in July 1816, where Araxes was paid off and Bligh went ashore. He does not appear to have been actively employed again at sea.