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Vanguard was laid down by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in Furness on 2 April 1908. She was the eighth ship to bear this name – a name that is enmeshed in the history of the Royal Navy. The ninth to bear the name Vanguard was launched in 1944, but only completed in 1947, after the war had ended; she was the biggest and fastest British battleship ever constructed, with 15-inch guns and a speed of 30 knots. But the era of the battleship was over and when she was scrapped early after only 13 years’ service in 1960, she was the last British battleship afloat. Today the eleventh Vanguard is the lead boat of the UK’s Trident ballistic missile submarine fleet based at Faslane.

The 19,700-ton St-Vincent-class dreadnought battleship HMS Vanguard.

The eighth Vanguard was launched on 22 February 1909, and after fitting out afloat she was commissioned on 1 March 1910. She displaced 19,700 long tons standard and 22,800 tons deep load, and was 536 feet long with a beam of 84 feet.

Vanguard was fitted with ten breech-loading (BL) 12-inch Vickers Mk XI guns set in five twin turrets: the foremost, A turret, on the centreline forward of the bridge on the fo’c’sle deck; then P and Q turrets set one either side of the bridge superstructure; and two more aft on the centre line, X and Y turrets. The port wing turret was called P turret whilst the starboard wing turret was Q turret. These turrets had 11-inch face and side armour with 3-inch armour roofs.