Thomas Symonds (Royal Navy officer, died 1894)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Matthew Charles Symonds, GCB (31 October 1811 – 14 November 1894) was a Royal Navy officer.

Symonds led an active retirement, writing letters and pamphlets to The Times arguing in favour of changes to ship design and a stronger navy.

He then issued a nine-column, eleven-point statement as a Christmas supplement to all the service papers entitled "The Truly Perilous State of Great Britain Should War Occur between France and Ourselves".

[7] Symonds was deployed to the Black Sea in HMS Arethusa in 1854, early of the Crimean War, and participated in the bombardment of Sevastopol in October 1854.

[10] Promoted to rear-admiral on 1 November 1860,[11] Symonds became Admiral Superintendent at Devonport Dockyard, with his flag in the second-rate HMS Indus, in December 1862.

On 20 October 1890, he wrote an open letter to the British press regarding the naval armour tests by the United States Navy at Annapolis.

[19] In 1892, Symonds issued a nine-column, eleven-point statement as a Christmas supplement to all the service papers entitled "The Truly Perilous State of Great Britain Should War Occur between France and Ourselves".

The bombardment of Sevastopol at which Symonds was present
A stern view of the armoured frigate HMS Minotaur , Symonds' flagship as Commander-in-Chief, Channel Squadron
The scalene triangle , advocated by Symonds as an appropriate naval formation for a squadron of ships
Symonds criticised the design of the battleship HMS Trafalgar , which he said sat far too low in the water.