Captain Sir Robert Mends (c. 1767 – 4 September 1823) was a prominent British Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, who lost an arm in the American War of Independence, caught in an explosion at the Battle of Groix in 1795 and wounded again at the action of 6 April 1809.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1779, serving on HMS Culloden under Captain George Balfour during the American War of Independence.

The following year, Mends joined the frigate HMS Guadeloupe and was in action at the Battle of Cape Henry in March 1781 before participating in the Siege of Yorktown.

Mends remained in service at the end of the war and joined HMS Grampus in 1786, under Commodore Edward Thompson off the African coast.

At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Mends was serving on the ship of the line HMS Colossus in the Mediterranean and was present at the Siege of Toulon.

In 1795, Colossus joined the Channel Fleet and fought at the Battle of Groix, at which Mends was caught in a large explosion that left him very badly burned.