Admiral Sir Edward Thornbrough, GCB (27 July 1754 – 3 April 1834) was a senior, long-serving veteran officer of the British Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He saw action in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, being wounded several times and once captured by American forces after a shipwreck. During the wreck, his conduct towards American prisoners aboard his ship was considered so exemplary that the American authorities later released him without parole or exchange.
During the later conflict, Thornbrough won praise for taking his frigate into the thick of the action at the Glorious First of June, towing the shattered HMS Bellerophon to safety after she was isolated by several French ships of the line. Later, Thornbrough became a senior admiral in both the Channel Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet under Cuthbert Collingwood, who held him in high esteem. He retired in 1818 and settled in Devon with his third wife, dying in 1834.
From 1810 until 1813, Thornbrough busied himself in command of the Cork Station. In 1813 he again briefly retired as a full admiral and in 1815 was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his long service. In 1813 his second wife had died and again he remarried less than a year later, to Frances Le Cras, younger sister of his first wife. Between 1815 and 1818, Thornbrough served as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth and he retired for good in 1818 after just under 50 years of service in the Navy, an exceptionally long career.
Thornbrough lived the rest of his life at Bishopsteignton Lodge in Devon. In 1825 he was made a Knight Grand Cross. He was however active in naval circles and became Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom and Lieutenant of the Admiralty in 1833 during his retirement. He died at home in 1834.