Wyllie would have had many opportunities to draw or paint watercolours of HMS ‘Lion’ during World War I when she was part of the First Battlecruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, as flagship of Vice-Admiral Beatty, taking part in the Battles of the Heligoland Bight, 1914, the Dogger Bank, 1915, and Jutland, 1916. His painting, 'Bringing in the wounded Lion', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, shows the damaged 'Lion' returning to the Firth of Forth after the battle of the Dogger Bank. Wyllie wrote vividly of seeing HMS ‘Lion’ when he was with the fleet in 1915:

'When the ship began to swing to the flood I got a moving picture through my scuttle. First, 'Lion' with Sir David Beatty's flag at the fore. Many hoists of bright bunting were mounting in graceful curves to her masthead, but as I looked my picture drew away to the left, the bows of the flagship were hidden, and instead the quarterdeck and ladder came into view. Crowds of seamen were as busy as bees, barges and picket-boats were rushing up, and there was a constant coming and going of officers. But now this scene slipped farther to the left...' (W. D. Kirkpatrick, C. Owen and W. L. Wyllie, ‘More Sea Fights of the Great War' [London: Cassell & Company Ltd, 1919]).

This rough 'wet-work' study of the ship at moorings, from off the starboard bow, is post-Jutland, since her torpedo nets have been removed and these were taken away during the repairs to her Jutland battle damage. Her initial repairs were completed on 20 July 1916 but without Q-turret, which was not replaced until 23 September. As Q-turret is shown in this drawing the date has to be later than September 1916 and before the fitting of the searchlight towers to her mainmast in mid-1917. The destroyer leader 'Abdiel', sketched in the top right corner, was completed in March 1916 and is shown in her minelayer configuration.