HMS Earl of Peterborough (1915)

300px HMS Earl of Peterborough at Mudros. HMS Roberts astern
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Earl of Peterborough
Builder:	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	480
Laid down:	16 January 1915
Launched:	26 August 1915
Completed:	23 September 1915
Decommissioned:	1921
Fate:	Scrapped 1921
General characteristics
Class & type:	Lord Clive-class monitor
Displacement:	6,150 tons
Length:	335 ft (102.1 m)
Beam:	87 ft (26.5 m)
Draught:	9.7 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, reciprocating steam engines, 2 boilers, 2,310 hp
Speed:	6.5 knots (12.0 km/h)
Complement:	187
Armament:	2 × BL Mk VIII guns in a single turret, two 3-inch (76 mm) guns.

HMS Earl of Peterborough was a First World War Royal Navy Lord Clive-class monitor. Earl of Peterborough was the only Royal Navy ship ever named for Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, a British general of the War of the Spanish Succession who fought in Spain. The ship's original 12" main battery was stripped from an obsolete Majestic-class battleship, the HMS Mars.

The Lord Clive-class monitors were originally built in 1915 to engage German shore artillery in occupied Belgium during the First World War. Earl of Peterborough, however was differently employed, being dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean upon completion for service with the fleet there. Early in 1916 she shelled Turkish positions in the Dardanelles and during the remainder of the war was active against Turkish units in Egypt, Palestine and Turkey itself.

Following the armistice in November 1918, Earl of Peterborough and her sisters were put into reserve pending scrapping, as the reason for their existence ended with the liberation of Central Power-led coastlines. In 1921 Earl of Peterborough was scrapped along with all her sisters.