The ship spent the war in the English Channel bombarding German positions along the Belgian coast as part of the Dover Patrol.

To this end the Lord Clive class were given a heavy armament modified to increase its range and a shallow draught to allow them to work inshore as necessary.

The monitor carried 356 long tons (362 t) of coal which gave her a range of 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) at 6.5 knots (12.0 km/h; 7.5 mph).

The director's crew would calculate the amount of traverse and elevation needed to hit the target and transmit that information to the turret for the guns to follow.

Two coal bunkers were turned into magazines for them, reducing the range to approximately 960 nmi (1,780 km; 1,100 mi), and increasing the crew in size to 215, necessitating plating in the sides of much of the upper deck to provide quarters.

[9] She participated in a bombardment of the German naval base at Ostend, Belgium on 7 September, but Vice-Admiral Reginald Bacon had to order a withdrawal after his flagship, General Craufurd's sister ship, Lord Clive, was hit four times in quick succession by a previously unknown artillery battery.

On the 25th General Craufurd and her sister Prince Eugene bombarded German positions at Zeebrugge, Belgium, as part of a deception operation to suggest that the Allies were launching an attack in that sector.

On 15 November General Craufurd and the seaplane carrier Riviera were sent to the Thames Estuary where they could develop techniques to allow aircraft to correct the shooting of multiple monitors via wireless in an area that had been laid out to replicate some of the features of the Belgian coast.

This was the last bombardment for the next seven months as the monitors were used to support British light forces and the Dover Barrage, the complex of minefields and nets in the Channel.

To add insult to injury, Bacon limited General Craufurd's participation in the diversionary bombardment conducted in support of the Battle of the Somme in early September to only seven rounds spread over the seven days of the operation.

The ship and her sisters rehearsed their role up until mid-July when the battle began, but the Allies could not make the ten-mile (16 km) advance necessary to launch the operation.

Field Marshal Haig refused to support Bacon's proposal for a more modest landing in the Nieuport-Middelkerke area in September, so the operation was cancelled on 2 October.

[15] Four of the 12-inch monitors, including General Craufurd, were tasked to support the attempt to block the entrance to the Ostend-Bruges Canal that led to the naval base at Bruges by bombarding the coastal artillery defending the port.

Before the first attempt on 11 April had to be called off because the wind shifted and the required smoke screen couldn't be laid properly, the monitors had already fired 50 rounds between them.

During the third attempt of 23 April, which failed when the blockships ran aground, General Craufurd fired about fifty rounds of 12-inch and some 6-inch shells and was near missed in return by the German guns.

The monitor played a minor role in another attempt on 9/10 May when she buoyed the approach channel, but the blockship was blinded by smoke and failed to arrive at her intended position at the canal entrance.