HMS Iron Duke was built for the British Royal Navy during the years of 1912 to 1914. Iron Duke, a Super Dreadnought, was one of 4 Battleships built in this class.

HMS Iron Duke served between the years of 1914 to 1946.

Preceded by: King George V Class

Succeeded by: Queen Elizabeth Class

HMS Iron Duke was a well-designed ship, capable of outgunning its German (if not its American) counterparts, and serving as the basis for the even more heavily armed Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre. 

HMS Iron Duke became flagship of the Grand Fleet upon its creation in August 1914. Iron Duke carried the flag of Adm. John Jellicoe, who had been promoted by Winston Churchill to command at the beginning of the war.  

The only genuinely productive sortie she was in came in late May 1916, when Iron Duke served as Grand Fleet Admiral Jellicoe’s flagship at the Battle of Jutland. At the head of the British line, it inflicted serious damage on the German battleship SMS Konig, as well as several smaller ships. The German prey escaped in the night, however, and Iron Duke returned to Scapa Flow. Soon after Adm. Jellicoe was promoted, and Adm.David Beatty took his place. The crew of Iron Duke did not care for their new Admiral, so in-turn made HMS Queen Elizabeth the flagship for the Grand Fleet.

After WWII HMS Iron Duke served extensively in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean, helping to manage the fallout of the Russian Civil War and the Greco-Turkish War. The Royal Navy investigated a modernization scheme in the late 1920s, but expected the pending London Naval Treaty of 1930 to further reduce the number of allowable battleships. 

The Washington Naval Treaty eventually caught up with Iron Duke in the second culling of Battleships, and she was demilitarized and became a gunnery training ship until the outbreak of WWII where she was moved in September of 1939 to Scapa Flow performing the task of Harbor Defense. In October of the same year she was damaged by long range German bombers, and beached herself to prevent her from sinking. She continued to defend the harbor, as an anti-aircraft platform, and was again damaged in March of 1940 during another air raid.

In the late 1940's Iron Duke was re-floated, and in 1948 sold for scrap.