HMS Lion was a light cruiser of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1942 as one of the Minotaur class and laid down that same year as Defence by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Greenock on 6 June 1942.
Partially complete, Lion was launched on 2 September 1944 by Lady Edelson, but work was suspended in 1946 and Defence was laid up at Gareloch. Construction of Defence and two other cruisers was later resumed to a revised Tiger class design. Defence was renamed Lion in 1957 and construction continued at the yards of Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson at Wallsend. She was finally commissioned in July 1960.
In September 1965 Lion was present at the Maltese Independence celebrations, and earlier that year had been rammed under the Forth Road Bridge by HMS Lowestoft. Emergency repairs were carried out in Rosyth Dockyard before she sailed for Malta with only hours to spare. Early in 1965, Lion was present at the Gambia Independence ceremony on Bathurst, now Banjul. In August 1965 Lion was decommissioned into reserve at Devonport until 1972, when she was placed on the disposal list - plans to convert her along the lines of her sisters HMS Tiger and HMS Blake having been rejected as too costly. On 15 May 1973 she arrived at Rosyth and was subsequently stripped of parts and equipment for use with Tiger and Blake. Lion was sold for breaking up on 12 February 1975 for £262,500. On 24 April 1975 Lion arrived at Inverkeithing where she was scrapped by Wards. Some equipment from her was salvaged and sold to Peru for use with their former British Crown Colony class cruisers.