Admiral Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Baronet (26 June 1718 – 21 November 1784) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and slave trader.

On 31 July 1755, he was given command of the Leeward Islands Station[2] as a commodore, arriving aboard HMS Winchester in October.

Able but stubborn and of a difficult temper, he was involved in quarrels with his predecessor, Thomas Pye, and the local authorities in Antigua.

He was promoted rear admiral while there, but refusing to accede to the Admiralty's wish to control some of the patronage at his disposal (declaring in a letter to the secretary "I have friends of my own to provide for") fell into immediate disfavour with his superiors.

[1] He had entered Parliament for the family's borough of Thirsk in 1747, and held the seat until 1780, when he sought the governorship of Greenwich Hospital.