HMS "Whitshed" was commissioned on 11 July 1919 into the Royal Navy with pennant number FA7. She was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet. In October 1919 she was assigned the pennant number D77 under a simplification of the pennant number system. The Flotilla served in Home waters in the early 1920s. The Flotilla was first assigned to the Mediterranean and in 1926 to the China Station. She was involved in the Nanking Incident in March 1927. When the United States Navy gunboat was heavily damaged by fire while at sea off China on 14 March 1934, "Whitshed", her sister ship , and the merchant ship SS "Tsinan" came to "Fulton"s assistance. "Wishart" and "Tsinan" took off "Fulton"s crew, three of whom had suffered minor injuries, and took them to the Royal Navy Dockyard at Hong Kong while "Whitshed" stood by "Fulton" until a salvage party could put the fire out. The United States Department of the Navy later passed thanks to British naval authorities for the assistance "Wishart" and "Whitshed" provided to "Fulton" and her crew.