HMS Iron Duke was a Dreadnought Battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley , 1st Duke of Wellington. She was built by Portsmouth Dockyard, and her keel laid in January 1912. Launched ten months later, she was commissioned into the Home Fleet in March 1914 as the fleet flagship.
Iron Duke served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during the Great War, including at the Battle of Jutland .
There, she inflicted significant damage on the German battleship SMS Konig early in the main fleet action.
In January 1917, she was relieved as fleet flagship.
After the war, Iron Duke operated in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet
She participated in both the Alied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea and the Greco - Turkish War.
She also assisted in the evacuation of refugees from Smyrna. In 1926, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as a training ship.