Intended for service in Asia, Glory and her sister ships were smaller and faster than the preceding Majestic-class battleships, but retained the same battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns.

In August 1916, Glory was sent to Murmansk, Russia, to support Britain's ally by keeping the vital port open for supplies being sent for the Eastern Front.

There, she served as the flagship of the British North Russia Squadron, including during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.

She returned to Britain in late 1919, was decommissioned, and was renamed HMS Crescent in 1920, before ultimately being sold to ship breakers in December 1922.

As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with four 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull, two on each broadside near the forward and aft barbette.

[6] In April 1903, Glory and the protected cruiser Blenheim joined a naval review held for the Japanese Emperor Meiji in Kobe, Japan.

[7] In 1905, the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance that reduced the need for a Royal Navy presence on the China Station, and all battleships there were ordered to return to Britain.

She underwent a refit at Portsmouth from March to September 1907, during which she received fire control and magazine cooling and had her machinery and boilers overhauled.

On 20 April 1909, she paid off at Portsmouth and recommissioned for reserve duty with a nucleus crew in the 4th Division, Home Fleet, at the Nore.

On the 8th, Glory and the rest of her squadron members left the convoy, which was thereafter protected by the battlecruiser Princess Royal and the battleship Majestic.

In mid-November, following Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's defeat at the Battle of Coronel, the Royal Navy began shifting warships south to meet the German East Asia Squadron as it rounded Cape Horn into the Atlantic.

Glory was delayed, however, as the armoured cruiser Suffolk, which was to remain off New York City to watch German liners in the port, required an overhaul.

Indeed, Glory had not fired her guns at all until early October, when she joined the battleship Prince George to shell Ottoman positions at Gallipoli.

[4][14] Glory was recommissioned on 1 August 1916 to serve as the flagship for Rear-Admiral Thomas Kemp, British North Russia Squadron, along with the protected cruiser HMS Vindictive and six minesweepers.

[4] The squadron's mission evolved after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 into preventing the supplies that had been delivered from falling into the hands of the Red Army.

Finnish forces attempted to seize nearby Pechenga as a first step toward advancing on Murmansk, but the attack broke down after Cochrane contributed marines and gunfire support to its defence.