They were powered by four direct-drive Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, which produced a total of 25,000 indicated horsepower (19,000 kW).

The turbines used steam generated by a dozen Yarrow boilers that used both coal and fuel oil which gave them a speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).

Despite some confusion at the highest levels of the Admiralty, Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, dispatched the 1st LCS and five of his battlecruisers to reinforce the Harwich Force.

Nottingham and the other ships were attacked several times by German submarines, and the armoured cruiser Roxburgh was hit in the bow by a single torpedo from SM U-39 on 20 June, but managed to return to Rosyth under her own power.

Nottingham helped to repel an attack by German torpedo boats around 16:26[Note 2] during the first phase of the battle, the "Run to the South".

About 10 minutes later, the 2nd LCS engaged the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, but were forced to disengage by the German battleships and took up station at the rear of the Grand Fleet.

[16] Around nightfall, the squadron attacked a group of three German torpedo boats without apparent effect at 20:52, although one ship had a boiler knocked out.

Nottingham was not hit during the engagement, but the squadron flagship, her half-sister Southampton, was extensively damaged and sank one of the opposing cruisers.

Part of the German plan was to draw the British ships through a series of submarine ambushes and Nottingham fell victim to one of the awaiting U-boats, U-52, about 06:00 the following morning.

Her half-sister Dublin had reported the first attack; in response, Beatty dispatched two destroyers to render assistance and they arrived about 10 minutes before Nottingham sank at 07:10.

In December 1993, during a ceremony at Emden, Germany, Flottillenadmiral Otto H. Ciliax of the Federal German Navy presented the commanding officer of the latest HMS Nottingham with a boat's badge and ensign from the cruiser sunk in 1916, as a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation.