The ship was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company for the Royal Navy during World War I, and entered service at the end of 1918.

Although placed in reserve in 1938, Stuart was reactivated at the start of World War II to lead the Australian destroyer force, nicknamed the "Scrap Iron Flotilla" by German propagandists.

The flotilla operated in the Mediterranean, with Stuart participating in the Western Desert Campaign and the battles of Calabria and Cape Matapan, defeating the Italian submarine Gondar, evacuating Allied troops from Greece and Crete, and serving with the Tobruk Ferry Service.

[1] When Stuart was converted into a storesship and troop transport in 1944, her armament was changed to a single 4-inch gun, seven Oerlikons, three quad-barelled pom-poms, a Hedgehog, and a payload of depth charges.

In 1919–20, Stuart saw service in the Black Sea as part of Royal Navy operations during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, being dispatched to Yalta in April 1919 as fighting broke out in the Crimea,[7] and later evacuating troops from the British military mission in March 1920 as Bolshevik forces advanced on Novorossiysk.

[8] She also provided assistance to the Greeks during operations against the Turks, reinforcing the Aegean Squadron and escorting troopships during the occupation of Smyrna in May 1919,[9] and the during the landing at Panderma in July 1920.

[1] Stuart spent the early part of her RAN career operating in Australian waters, and she was decommissioned into reserve on 1 June 1938.

[15] Stuart was also involved in the Western Desert Campaign, providing gunfire support to army forces.

[15] Stuart supported the 6th Australian Division when it captured Tobruk on 22 January 1941,[16] and participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.

[15] After the refit, the destroyer was employed on convoy escort runs and anti-submarine patrols in eastern Australian waters.

[15][18] The ship earned eight battle honours for her wartime service: "Mediterranean 1940", "Calabria 1940", "Libya 1940–41", "Matapan 1941", "Greece 1941", "Crete 1941", "Pacific 1942–43", and "New Guinea 1942–44".