Revenge was recommissioned the following year, after the start of World War I, to bombard the coast of Flanders as part of the Dover Patrol, during which she was hit four times, but was not seriously damaged.

Their Humphrys & Tennant engines[3] were designed to produce a total of 11,000 indicated horsepower (8,200 kW) and a maximum speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) using steam provided by eight cylindrical boilers with forced draught.

The ships carried a maximum of 1,420 long tons (1,443 t) of coal which gave them a range of 4,720 nautical miles (8,740 km; 5,430 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[4] Their main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns mounted in two twin-gun barbettes, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

[16] On 21 February 1897, she joined the British torpedo gunboats HMS Dryad and HMS Harrier, the Russian battleship Imperator Aleksandr II, the Austro-Hungarian armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, and the German protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta in the International Squadron's first direct offensive action, a brief bombardment of Cretan insurgent positions on the heights east of Canea after the insurgents refused the squadron's order to take down a Greek flag they had raised, and she hit the farmstead that served as the insurgents′ base of operations with three 6-inch (152-mm) shells.

[21] The squadron focused on supporting international occupation forces ashore and enforcing a blockade of Crete and key ports in Greece.

In a meeting aboard Revenge on the morning of 13 September 1898, Noel ordered the Ottoman governor, Edhem Pasha, to take a number of actions to ensure that no further violence would take place and deliver the ringleaders of the riot to the British to face trial; when Edhem Pasha expressed reluctance, Revenge and Camperdown conducted a demonstration that convinced him to comply.

After Prince George boarded Bugeaud on 20 December, Revenge, Francesco Morosini, and Gerzog Edinburgski escorted Bugeaud to Crete, where Prince George disembarked on 21 December 1898 to take office as the High Commissioner of an autonomous Cretan State under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, bringing the Cretan uprising to an end.

[31] In March 1902, she arrived at Portsmouth for a refit that included the provision of casemates for her upper-deck six-inch guns, and her crew was temporarily transferred to the elderly ironclad Hercules, which also took on her duties at Portland.

[35] In April 1904, Revenge and her sister ship Royal Oak both struck a submerged wreck off the Scilly Isles while serving with the Home Fleet, damaging their bottoms.

[36] On 13 June 1908, Revenge was struck by the merchant ship SS Bengore Head when the latter was cut loose by her tugboat during a sudden squall in Portsmouth Harbour.

[37] In October 1909, she conducted gunnery tests on the obsolete battleship Edinburgh to evaluate the effects of shells against varying thicknesses of armour.

[38] On 7 January 1912, the ship was badly damaged when, during a gale at Portsmouth, she broke loose from her moorings and drifted onto the bow of the dreadnought Orion.

In September and October 1914, she was refitted at Portsmouth for this mission, which included relining her 13.5-inch guns down to 12 inches (305 mm),[11] improving their range by about 1,000 yards (914 meters).

Revenge was declared ready for service on 5 November 1914, and was assigned to the Channel Fleet's new 6th Battle Squadron along with the battleships Albemarle, Cornwallis, Duncan, Exmouth, and Russell.

Plans for the squadron to participate in an attack on German submarine bases were cancelled due to bad weather on 14 November 1914, and instead Revenge and the battleship Majestic departed Dover, England, for Dunkirk, France.

On 15–16 December 1914, Revenge bombarded German heavy artillery batteries, during which time she received two 8-inch (203-mm) shell hits, one of which penetrated her hull below the waterline and caused her to be withdrawn for repairs.