She served both as a troopship and as a hospital ship, prefixed HMT and HMHS respectively, before, during and after the First World War.

She was built in 1898 and originally served as a passenger liner with the Union-Castle Line, sailing from Southampton to South Africa.

[1] At the start of the Second Boer War, and from 1909, she served as a troopship and was requisitioned for the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and in Gallipoli in 1915.

[1] Later in 1915, she was converted to a hospital ship, hitting a mine (laid by SM U-73) in the Aegean Sea on 23 November 1916 and being repaired at La Spezia.

After a brief return to commercial service, Braemar Castle was again requisitioned as a troopship for the peace-keeping force during the Greco-Turkish War.