After briefly serving in the Majestic Blagrove was appointed to HMS Tiger, a ship which was being completed for service in the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty.

Nevertheless, Tiger was involved in the battle's final moments as the stricken German armoured cruiser SMS Blücher heeled over and sank with nearly 800 lives.

The battle as a whole was a confusing affair without a clear victor but within 24 hours Tiger had recovered sufficiently from her damage to be able to return to active service.

Unlike the battlecruisers in Rosyth, Queen Elizabeth was stationed in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and it was there that Blagrove met his future wife Edith Lowe, who was serving as a Wren.

[3] Aboard Queen Elizabeth, Blagrove served out the war, being present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.

[4] In 1932, after several staff appointments, Blagrove was briefly placed in command of HMS Norfolk and was then returned to shore duties at the Admiralty in 1934.

[2] In 1937, Blagrove spent a year commanding HMS Sussex (96) and in 1938 was given the promotion to rear-admiral and placed on the staff of the Admiral Superintendent at Chatham Dockyard after a period as Naval Aide-de-Camp to King George VI.

Training and preparing his force in the run up to and opening weeks of the Second World War, Blagrove proved himself a capable and efficient officer, despite some doubts regarding his quiet personality and consequent suitability for service in a seagoing command.

[2] HMS Royal Oak was sunk late on the night of 13 October 1939 after the German submarine U-47 entered Scapa Flow by bypassing its blockship defences.

Initially Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, the commander of U-47, had been disappointed to find that the Royal Naval anchorage was largely empty; this was the result of a recent order from Admiral Charles Forbes to clear Scapa Flow in case of air attack.

[1] His actual gravesite, the wreck of Royal Oak, is a protected war grave and a memorial to all the men who died aboard her stands in St. Magnus Cathedral on the Orkney Islands.

Blagrove's widow later worked on the efforts to break the codes of the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park, and his family have made several visits to the Islands to commemorate their father's memory.