The Battle-class was developed as a result of operational experience in the early years of the Second World War, which had shown that the Royal Navy's existing destroyers had inadequate anti-aircraft protection, and in particular, lacked a modern dual-purpose main gun armament, capable of dealing with both surface targets and air attack, with guns lacking the high elevation mountings necessary to deal with dive bombers.

766 long tons (778 t) of fuel oil was carried, giving an endurance of 4,400 nmi (5,100 mi; 8,100 km) at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h).

The destroyer was laid down by John Brown at their Clydebank shipyard as Yard number 615 on 28 December 1943, launched on 17 January 1945 and completed on 14 February 1947.

[14][15] On 12 November 1949, Barrosa collided with the oiler Black Ranger, damaging some of the destroyer's portholes and causing a small split in her hull.

[14] In 1950, Barrosa with one of her sister ships and the aircraft carrier HMS Vengeance, where the small group performed a number of naval exercises and visits to a variety of ports.

[14] In June 1953, Barrosa took part in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead in honour of the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II.

[23] In March 1967, at the start of her final commission, Barrosa was used in attempts to break up the oil spill from the supertanker Torrey Canyon, which had run aground off Cornwall, with detergent.