During the subsequent Battle of the Falkland Islands at the end of 1914, the ship sank the German light cruiser Nürnberg.

The Monmouths were intended to protect British merchant shipping from fast cruisers like the French Guichen, Châteaurenault or the Dupleix class.

The engines produced a total of 22,000 indicated horsepower (16,000 kW) which was designed to give the ships a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).

[2] The Monmouth-class ships' main armament consisted of fourteen breech-loading (BL) 6-inch (152 mm) Mk VII guns.

[6] Kent, named to commemorate the English county,[7] was laid down at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard on 12 February 1900[8] and launched on 6 March 1901 (one day late due to weather), when she was christened by Lady Hotham, wife of Admiral Sir Charles Frederick Hotham, GCB, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

Kent, however, was diverted en route to hunt for the German light cruiser Karlsruhe in the Cape Verde – Canary Islands area.

[12] When the news of the disastrous Battle of Coronel reached the Admiralty in early November, she was at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and was ordered to resume her original mission.

During this time the ship evidenced the results of a too-hastily completed refit with condenser problems and engine defects that sometimes left her unable to steam faster than 10 knots.

Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee's battlecruisers arrived on the 26th and he took Stoddart's ships under his command and then proceeded to the Falkland Islands two days later.

Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the German squadron, had other plans and intended to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley on the morning of 8 December.

At 14:45 Glasgow, the fastest of the British cruisers, was close enough to Leipzig to open fire and the two ships exchanged salvos, scoring the occasional hit.

Short on coal, her crew threw in everything burnable, and she reached 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) in her pursuit; she closed to within 11,000 yards (10,000 m) when the German cruiser opened fire at 17:00.

Nürnberg capsized half an hour later and Kent continued to search until 21:00, but only rescued a dozen men, five of whom later died.

The German cruiser successfully evaded the searching British for months by hiding in the maze of bays and channels surrounding Tierra del Fuego.

She began moving up the Chilean coast in February 1915 until she was unexpectedly spotted by Kent at a range of 11,000 yards on 8 March when a fog burned off.

In the meantime, Kent had summoned Glasgow and the two ships entered Cumberland Bay in the island on the morning of 14 March and found Dresden at anchor.

By the time that Canaris returned to Dresden, her crew had finished preparations for scuttling and abandoned ship after opening her Kingston valves.

She then began escorting convoys between South Africa and West African ports, or the Cape Verde Islands.

That caused a depth charge to detonate underneath Kenilworth Castle, blowing a hole in that ship's hull although she successfully made it to port.

Kent remained there with engine problems until 21 December when she departed for Vladivostok via Shanghai, China, and Nagasaki, Japan.

Kent's troops were able to transfer the guns to railroad cars before the city was captured on 30 June and they were sold to the Whites once the men reached Omsk.

[25] On 13 May, Kent accompanied the Russian steamship SS Georgie carrying troops to seize Tetyukhe; the ships later loaded refugees and arrived back at Vladivostok three days later.