The C class were War Emergency Programme destroyers, intended for general duties, including use as anti-submarine escort, and were to be suitable for mass-production.

[16] Like the rest of the 8th Flotilla, Cockade subsequently saw service in the Korean War, taking part in escort, patrol and shore bombardment duties.

[16] On 7 April she picked up a United States Air Force pilot who had been shot down behind the front lines three months earlier and hidden by Korean civilians.

[16] On 6–7 May, Cockade, together with the American cruiser Helena and destroyers Buck, Fiske and Orleck, provided fire support to South Korean troops around Kosong.

On the night of 30 November/1 December 1951, Cockade was covering the evacuation of troops from the South Korean-held island of Taehwa-to on the Pansong Archipelago when she was hit by gunfire from the shore, killing one rating.

[24] On 24 August 1953, while executing the "Formosa Strait Patrol" operation to protect the "peaceful vessels" on the high seas of Taiwan Strait, Cockade answered the radio distress call to come to the assistance of the British mercantile freighter Nigelock (the former Flower-class corvette Nigella), carrying a cargo of vegetable and fruit deliveries from Shanghai to Amoy via the international sea lane, when Nigelock was intercepted by the 4.5-inch shell and machine gunshots from the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) Huangpu 黄浦 PC-105 (a former USS PC-461-class submarine chaser) enforcing ROC's Guanbi policy to blockade the coast of the Chinese mainland.

Cockade fired a warning shot and signaled Huangpu to turn away, which was praised by the Hong Kong newspapers later as a successful rescue to deter the "piracy".

On 26 April, during night exercises, a star shell fired by Cockade landed in a gun bay on the Australian destroyer HMAS Tobruk, killing one seaman and severely wounding another.

At the end of 1957, on her return journey to Britain, Cockade was diverted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) with a cargo of sugar as part of the British response to flooding.

[32][33] Cockade returned to Plymouth from the Far East on 27 January 1958, having steamed over 350,000 nautical miles (650,000 km; 400,000 mi) since her launch,[33] and decommissioned.

The destroyer was laid up at Devonport in reserve pending disposal, with duties including acting as an accommodation ship for the frigate Tartar.