The ship was built by John I. Thornycroft & Company at their Woolston, Hampshire shipyard, and was launched on 18 March 1930, completing in October 1931.

[7] Anti-aircraft armament consisted of two 40-millimetre (1.6 in) QF 2-pounder Mk II 'pom-pom' autocannons, backed up by four .303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns.

[4] The A-class were fitted with the Two-Speed Destroyer Sweep minesweeping equipment to allow sweeping ahead of the fleet at high speeds, which meant that the anti-submarine outfit was reduced,[8] with three depth charge racks and six depth charges,[9][10] The A-class destroyers were given space for an ASDIC system, but it was not initially fitted.

[16] These problems convinced the Admiralty not to continue with experiments with high boiler pressures, with later destroyer classes using conservative steam conditions.

[16] On completion of the refit, Acheron was transferred to second-line duties, replacing Ambuscade as tender to HMS Vernon, the Royal Navy's torpedo school.

On 17 April, she and Arrow left Rosyth accompanying the cruisers Galatea, Arethusa, Carlisle and Curacoa, for Operation Sickle, the landing of troops from the 5th Leicestershire and 8th Sherwood Foresters at Åndalsnes and Molde.

[25] On 24 April, Acheron, together with the destroyers Arrow and Griffin and the cruisers Birmingham, Manchester and York left Rosyth on another trooping and supply run to Åndalsnes, with the six ships carrying nearly 1600 men and 300 tons of stores.

They arrived at the Romsdalsfjord on the evening of 26 April, and after finishing disembarkation, the destroyers and York set out for Britain, but encountered a suspicious trawler flying the Netherlands flag when leaving the fjord.

They encountered another German trawler, Schiff 26 (ex-Julius Pickenpack), which was captured by a boarding party from Griffin and taken back to Scapa Flow.

[28][29][30] Acheron returned to Scapa Flow with the two carriers on 3 May, before departing later that day to reinforce the escort for the evacuation convoy from Namsos.

[32][33] Acheron, together with Diana and Highlander, remained with Ark Royal after the embarkations had been completed on 8 June, with the carrier and her escort accompanying one of the convoys carrying troops back to Britain.

On 21 June, as part of an emergency programme to improve the anti-aircraft capabilities of the Royal Navy's destroyers as a result of lessons leaned from the Norwegian campaign, Acheron had her aft bank of torpedo tubes replaced by a 3 in (76 mm) AA gun.

[16][35] Whilst sailing 10 mi (16 km) south off St. Catherine's Point on 20 July, she was attacked by German dive bombers, and was damaged by nine near misses.

[39] Early on 17 December, Acheron left Portsmouth to carry out steaming trials in the English Channel, making runs over a measured mile off the Isle of Wight.

The explosion caused a fire forward and a heavy list, and the destroyer settled bows first, sinking within five minutes.