Upon being commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1916, Centaur was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron, which operated as a part of Harwich Force in the North Sea to defend the eastern approaches to the Strait of Dover and English Channel.

On 5 June 1917 she and the light cruisers HMS Canterbury and HMS Conquest sank the German torpedo boat S20 in the North Sea near the Schouwen Bank off Zeebrugge, Belgium.

In March 1919, she was reassigned from Harwich Force to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet, recommissioning at Malta in June 1920 and Gibraltar in October 1922 to continue that service.

After undergoing a refit in 1924 and 1925, she was recommissioned at Portsmouth on 8 April 1925 to serve as the flagship of Commodore (D) – the officer in command of all destroyers – in the Atlantic Fleet, recommissioning in February 1928 and September 1930 to continue in this role.

[4] Centaur was placed on the sale list in 1933 and sold in February 1934 to King, of Troon, Scotland, for scrapping.