Renown: service, royal tours, and reserve

Renown did not fire in anger during the First World War, but she served with the battlecruiser force and was present at the High Seas Fleet surrender. After the war, alterations for royal travel traded flying-off platforms and some armament for accommodation, a promenade, a squash court, and a cinema. Tours to North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Philippines, and Japan made the ship both royal transport and a highly visible display of British reach. Her subsequent reserve periods illustrate how a larger interwar fleet could rotate major ships out of full commission without losing every deployable capital ship.