Based on the Drake class, but of a smaller and cheaper design to enable a quicker production. The County (or Monmouth) class were built to increase the size of the fleet in response to other countries stepping up their warship production.

HMS Monmouth was initially commissioned into the home fleet but later transferred. Sunk by gunfire on 1st November 1914 by the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau off the Chilean Coast during the battle of Coronel, the entire crew was lost.