I understand that Perkins was not always correct, but in his volume "British Warship Recognition - The Perkins Identification Albums Volume 1: Capital Ships 1895-1939" it narrates that Agincourt was laid down for Brazil, sold to Turkey in January 1914 as Sultan Osman I and bought by Great Britain in August 1914. His illustrations show HMS Agincourt received into British service still with maintopmast, flying deck between funnels, no searchlight platforms on the Samson post and torpedo nets installed.
It's possible he got the timeline wrong, but clearly the photograph above is configured the same as his "1915-1916" sketch which is summarised by the inverse of the above noted features. Notes A-C below the sketch state nets, rig (i.e. maintopmast) and flying deck were removed in 1914, whilst note D states that the searchlights on the Samson post were removed in 1915. Below these is an unnumbered note to claim "On joining G.F. painting dark hull, lighter upperworks, (Temp.)"
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