List of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy

Ships of the Royal Navy
Ships by name: A B C D–F G–H I–L M–N O–Q R–T U–Z
fleet aircraft carriers escort carriers seaplane carriers amphibious assault shipping battlecruisers dreadnought battleships pre-dreadnought battleships ironclads bomb vessels breastwork monitors corvettes and sloops cruisers destroyers torpedo boats fireships frigates gun-brigs gunboats and gunvessels mine countermeasure vessels monitors patrol and attack craft royal yachts ships of the line submarines support ships survey vessels shore establishments hospitals and hospital ships air stations aircraft wings fleets and major commands squadrons and flotillas early English ships (1409–1660) early Scots ships (1329–1707)
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The British Royal Navy built a series of pre-dreadnought battleships as part of a naval expansion programme that began with the Naval Defence Act 1889. These ships were characterised by a main battery of four heavy guns—typically 12-inch (305 mm) guns—in two twin mounts, a secondary armament that usually comprised 4.7-to-6-inch (120 to 150 mm) guns, and a high freeboard.^[a] Primarily concerned with maintaining its "two-power standard" of numerical superiority over the combined French and Russian fleets, the Royal Navy built or purchased a total of fifty-two battleships of this type prior to the 1906 completion of the revolutionary all-big-gun Dreadnought, which gave the pre-dreadnoughts their name. William Henry White served as the Director of Naval Construction from 1885 to 1902 and thus oversaw the development of most of the pre-dreadnoughts.

The first class, the Royal Sovereign class, comprised eight ships and introduced the standard armament layout associated with pre-dreadnought type battleships. They were followed by a trio of smaller, second-class battleships intended for overseas duties: the two Centurion-class battleships and HMS Renown. The nine Majestic-class battleships followed as refinements of White's original design, and they proved to be widely influential as foreign navies copied their general characteristics. Six slightly smaller Canopus-class battleships intended for the China Station followed, after which White designed another tranche of eight larger battleships: three Formidable- and five very similar London-class ships. The latter were built as a stopgap while White completed work on the faster Duncan class, which were intended to counter new Russian ships. A trend toward larger secondary batteries in foreign battleships led to the eight-ship King Edward VII class, which carried 9.2 in (234 mm) guns. A pair of small battleships originally built for the Chilean Navy—what became the Swiftsure class—were purchased after the Chileans placed them for sale in 1903. A final class of two ships, designed by Philip Watts, was built while Dreadnought was being developed: the Lord Nelson class.

The ships built for the Royal Navy served in a variety of roles across the globe, seeing service in the Mediterranean, Home, and Atlantic Fleets, among others. The second-class ships generally operated abroad on the China Station or elsewhere in the British Empire. As newer ships came into service, older vessels were placed in reserve or converted for subsidiary duties, including serving as barracks ships and depot vessels. One vessel, Montagu, was lost in an accidental grounding in 1906 and the oldest battleships of the Royal Sovereign and Centurion classes were broken up beginning in the early 1910s. With the start of the First World War in 1914, many of the vessels were mobilised for combat, and many served in the Dardanelles campaign, where five were lost to torpedoes and mines. Another five were sunk elsewhere during the war. The surviving vessels were all broken up in the post-war reduction in naval strength save one, Agamemnon, which was converted into a radio-controlled target ship. She served in this role until 1927, when she was sold for scrap.

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