The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt, quickly produced a new design to meet Fisher's requirements and the builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months.

The ship frequently conveyed royalty on their foreign tours and served as flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron when Hood was refitting.

The ship was transferred back to Force H for Operation Torch and spent much of 1943 refitting or transporting Winston Churchill and his staff to and from various conferences with various Allied leaders.

The usable material was transferred to the builders, who had received enough information from the DNC's department to lay the keels of both ships on 25 January 1915, well before the altered contracts were completed on 10 March.

[4] Her Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbines were designed to produce 112,000 shaft horsepower (84,000 kW), which would propel the ship at 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph).

After the Battle of Jutland in 1916, while the ship was still completing, an extra inch of high-tensile steel was added on the main deck over the magazines.

In June she was refitted in preparation for a tour of Canada, Newfoundland and the United States by Edward, Prince of Wales, and both flying-off platforms were removed.

[15] The ship sailed in March for Australia and New Zealand with the Prince of Wales and his entourage aboard and made many stops en route.

[14] Renown was recommissioned in September 1921 for a tour of India, the Philippines and Japan by the Prince of Wales and sailed from Portsmouth in October.

Renown's main armour belt was removed and a new 9-inch belt was installed, using up the remaining plates made surplus by the conversion of the battleship Almirante Cochrane (originally ordered by Chile and purchased after the war began) to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle as well as new armour, but installed about 3 feet (0.9 m) higher than on Repulse to offset any increase in draught.

A strake of tapered armour was fitted underneath the main belt to deflect any shell that dived beneath the water's surface; it was 9-inches thick at top and thinned to 2 inches (51 mm) at the bottom.

Two longitudinal bulkheads were added between the upper and main decks that ran from the base of the conning tower to the end of the boiler rooms.

[20] Renown finished her reconstruction in September 1926 and she was assigned to the Battlecruiser Squadron until the ship was detached to convey The Duke and Duchess of York to Australia between January and July 1927.

Together with Hood, Renown was sent to Gibraltar to reinforce the Mediterranean Fleet during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935–36 and transferred to Alexandria in January 1936 where she was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron.

Her superstructure and funnels were razed to the level of the upper deck, her masts taken out and the ship's main and secondary armament was removed.

[29] The guns were controlled by four dual-purpose Mark IV directors, two mounted on the rear of the bridge structure and the remaining two on the aft superstructure.

Much like her sister, she spent September patrolling in the North Sea, but was transferred to Force K in the South Atlantic in October to help search for the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee.

The ship joined Force H at the Cape of Good Hope in November to prevent Admiral Graf Spee from breaking into the South Atlantic.

She remained in the South Atlantic even after Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled on 17 December and did not return to the Home Fleet until March 1940.

Renown supported British forces during the Norwegian Campaign and engaged the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 9 April.

A few minutes later she hit Gneisenau with one 15-inch and two 4.5-inch shells that knocked out the ship's main fire-control director and damaged the rangefinder on 'A' turret.

[33] In November 1940 Force H covered the small aircraft carrier HMS Argus as she flew off Hurricane fighters bound for Malta from a position south of Sardinia.

Renown and Force H escorted another convoy to Malta in July and the ship returned home for repairs to her starboard bulge the next month.

Renown rejoined Home Fleet once those missions were completed, but was transferred to Force H in October 1942 to participate in Operation Torch.

[34] Renown returned to Britain to refit from February to June 1943; her catapult and aircraft were removed while the hangar was converted to a laundry and a cinema.

In April she participated in Operation Cockpit, an air strike against port and oil facilities on Sabang, off the island of Sumatra.

Renown supported the air strike against Surabaya, Java (Operation Transom) on 17 May as well as the follow-on attack against Port Blair on 21 June.

On 22 November Renown was replaced as flagship by HMS Queen Elizabeth and the ship began a refit at Durban from December to February 1945.

Renown was recalled in March lest the remaining German heavy ships make a final sortie and reached Rosyth on 15 April.

The ship hosted a meeting between King George VI and President Truman on 3 August when the latter was en route home aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta.