Lord George Graham

Lord George Graham was born on 26 September 1715, the son of James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose, and his wife Christian, the daughter of David Carnegie, 3rd Earl of Northesk. He entered the navy at an early age and served at first as a midshipman from 1730, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1734. He held the command until 15 March 1740, when he was promoted to captain. He was appointed to command the 40-gun HMS Lark in 1741 with orders to escort a convoy of merchants bound for Turkey. He does not appear to have held the command long, for by late 1741 Lark was under the command of Captain Rupert Waring, escorting a convoy to the West Indies. Graham combined his naval career with a political one, and using the influence of his father, was returned for Stirlingshire as an opposition Whig in 1741. He was one of a number of Scottish MPs who gathered together under John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll to oppose the administration, and were known as the Duke of Argyll's gang. As part of this faction Graham voted against the administration in 1742 and 1744. He also spoke out against the decision to court-martial Admiral Thomas Mathews in the spring of 1745, defending him in a vigorous debate over his actions at the inconclusive Battle of Toulon. ==Command==

Graham was appointed to command the 60-gun in 1745, but turned it down, preferring an active cruising frigate to a ship of the line. He was instead offered the 24-gun HMS Bridgewater and cruised in the English Channel. While cruising in the Channel off Ostend on 2 July, in company with the 24-gun under Captain William Gordon, and the armed vessel Ursula under Lieutenant Fergusson, he came across three large privateers from Dunkirk, sailing in company with their prizes. For his success in the engagement, Graham was commended to the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, and was given command of a larger ship, the 60-gun . Hogarth painted Graham smoking his pipe in his cabin before dinner, while listening to pipe and tabor music played by his black servant, while his chaplain and clerk sing. Two dogs are visible, one is Graham's own, which joins in the singing. The other is Trump, Hogarth's dog, which is shown wearing Graham's wig, holding a scroll, and reading from a sheet of music propped against a wine glass. The painting has several political and social allusions in Hogarth's satirical style. Cabin scenes in oil are rare, and Hogarth's is considered by the current owner, the National Maritime Museum, to be the most famous in British art. He was deployed off the north of Scotland in April 1746 to intercept any French vessels that might attempt to rescue survivors of the failed Jacobite rising, and so missed the political debates in parliament that month, though he was classed as a "new ally". ==Death and legacy==

Graham appears to have been taken ill during his time at sea, and he went ashore at Bristol. His brother, William Graham, 2nd Duke of Montrose came to meet him there in October, but Lord George Graham's health declined further, and he died at Bath on 2 January 1747. ==Notes==