Arrow served in the Mediterranean Fleet in the 1930s, rescuing refugees and taking part in neutrality patrols during the Spanish Civil War.
[6] She was adopted by the civil community of the Rural District of Blackwell, Derbyshire in February 1942 following a successful Warship Week National Savings Campaign.
[10] The Royal Navy was employed in evacuating British subjects from Spanish ports during the early part of the war,[11] and on 1 October 1936, Arrow embarked 118 refugees from Málaga and ferried them to safety in Gibraltar.
[12] On 20 April 1937, Arrow arrived at Málaga from Gibraltar, to monitor shipping on behalf of the International Non-Intervention Committee and to deliver a cargo of food aid.
On 23 April, following protests from the Nationalist authorities, Arrow left Málaga harbour and maintained a patrol outside the three-mile limit.
On 24 April, the Republican destroyers Lepanto and Sánchez Barcáiztegui attacked Málaga, with Arrow taking avoiding action in response to return fire from Nationalist coast defences.
In July that year, following completion of the refit, Arrow entered reserve at Sheerness, and in March 1938, commissioned into the local destroyer flotilla at Portsmouth.
[7] On the outbreak of the Second World War, Arrow joined the 18th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Portland, and tasked with anti-submarine patrol and convoy defence duties.
[14] On 17 April 1940, Arrow left Rosyth in company with sister ship Acheron and the cruisers Arethusa, Carlisle, Curacoa and Galatea, carrying troops of the 148th Infantry Brigade to Åndalsnes, Norway, as part of Operation Sickle.
[7] Arrow sailed again on 24 April, in company with the cruisers Birmingham Manchester and York, and the destroyers Acheron and Griffin with more troops and stores for Åndalsnes.
[20] On 7 June, as part of the final evacuation from Norway (Operation Alphabet), Arrow, with the sloop Stork and ten trawlers,[a] a slow convoy of eight storeships from Harstad.
[7] She was deployed on convoy defence duties in the North Western Approaches and on 16 August she and Achates attacked a U-boat that had been sighted by the armed merchant cruiser Cheshire.
On 13 November Arrow rescued survivors from the merchant vessel SS Empire Hind, which had been sunk by an air attack in the North Atlantic.
San Demetrio had been attacked by the German cruiser Admiral Scheer on 5 November, but after initially abandoning the then-burning ship the crew had re-boarded her to ensure the salvage of her valuable cargo.
[4] They arrived in the Clyde on 16 October, and Arrow entered repair at the Barclay Curle shipyard the following day, to fix her machinery.
[4] On 12 February she joined the screen for the cruisers Naiad, Dido and Euryalus with the destroyers Griffin, Hasty, Havock, Jaguar, Jervis, Kelvin and Kipling, providing cover for the passage of the convoys MW-9 and MW-9A through the Eastern Mediterranean.
They came under heavy and sustained air attacks on 13 February, during which the merchant Clan Campbell was badly damaged and had to be under escort to Tobruk.
She joined the Eastern Fleet at Gan on 4 April, where she was deployed as a screen for the battleships Ramillies, Royal Sovereign, Resolution and Revenge, the aircraft carrier Hermes, the cruisers Caledon, Dragon and the Dutch HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck and the destroyers Fortune, Griffin, Decoy, Scout, the Australian HMAS Norman and HMAS Vampire, and the Dutch HNLMS Isaac Sweers as Force B.
Arrow deployed on 15 April, providing anti-submarine protection for convoys sailing between Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope.
[4] She was released from the operation on 30 September and was transferred to Freetown, West Africa for convoy defence duties in the South Atlantic.
[4] Whilst in harbour at Algiers on 4 August Arrow was set on fire by the explosion of the merchant ship Fort La Montee.