HMS Roberts (1915)

HMS Roberts was an Abercrombie-class monitor monitor of the Royal Navy that served in the First World War.

On November 3, 1914, Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel offered Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, the use of four 14in/45cal BL MK II twin gun turrets, originally destined for the Greek ship Salamis. These turrets could not be delivered to the German builders, due to the British Naval blockade. The Royal Navy immediately created a class of monitors, designed for shore bombardment, to use the turrets.

Roberts was laid down at the Swan Hunter, Ltd shipyard at Wallsend on December 17, 1914. The ship was named Stonewall Jackson in honour of the US General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, however as the United States was still neutral, the ship was hurriedly renamed HMS M4 on May 31, 1915. She was then named HMS Earl Roberts on June 19, 1915 and again renamed HMS Roberts on June 22, 1915

Roberts sailed for the Dardanelles in June 1915. She remained in the Eastern Mediterranean until returning to England in February 1916. She served as a guard ship at Yarmouth until the end of the War. She decommissioned in May 1919, and was initially sold for breaking up in May 1921, but was retained by the Admiralty for trials.

Around 1925 she was considered for conversion to a mobile airship base with a mooring mast and fueling capabilities, but nothing came of this proposal. In the 1930s, she was used for testing underwater protection for new construction warships. She was finally sold in September 1936 to the Ward shipyard at Preston for breaking up.

In command

 * Captain H.N. Garnett, (May, 1915–?)
 * Commander W.A. Thompson, (?)
 * Commander Kenneth Dewar, (August, 1916–1917)
 * Commander B.M. Eyres-Monsell, (September, 1918–?)
 * Lieutenant-Commander E.J.J. Southby, (January, 1919 – May, 1919)