Kingston was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes on the Isle of Wight on 6 October 1937 as part of an order for six similar destroyers.

[1] Commissioned on 14 September 1939 with the pennant number F64, she joined the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, for convoy defence and anti-submarine duties in the North Sea.

On the night of 21 May 1941 Force C intercepted a convoy of 20 troop carrying caiques escorted by the Italian torpedo boat Lupo heading for Crete.

One detached caique was sunk and, although the British did not press the attack on the main convoy, the Germans were forced to abort their attempt to reach Crete.

Nonetheless, Sagittario covered the convoy's retreat by lying a smoke screen and firing her guns and torpedoes at the British squadron.

She returned to Alexandria on 24 May 1941, and was taken in hand for repairs and modifications, among which was the replacement of the aft set of torpedo tubes with a four-inch anti-aircraft gun in recognition of the devastating effect of the air attacks suffered by Force C. Kingston was engaged in defensive convoy duties to Tobruk and often as part of the escort for Breconshire on runs to Malta.

On 22 March 1942 Kingston took part of the escort of convoy MW10 in the Second Battle of Sirte, where, as the destroyers turned to fire their torpedoes on the Italian battle fleet, she was hit by a 15-inch shell fired by the Italian battleship Littorio which passed right through the foremost starboard whaleboat and burst under the anti-aircraft guns mounting, leaving a big hole in the deck; despite this, she launched three torpedoes.

Fifteen men of her crew were killed in this incident, which left the destroyer temporarily dead in the water, the whaleboat torn to pieces, her anti-aircraft guns, searchlight tower and torpedo launchers smashed by the explosion, her starboard boiler and port engine out of action.

[11] On 4 April 1942, whilst the destroyer was in dock at Malta repairing the damage from the naval encounter, a bomb fell directly at the entrance of the Corradino tunnel, where part of her crew had taken shelter.

Fourteen crewmen were killed by the blast including Commander Philip Somerville DSO., Lieutenant P. Hague, and Yeoman of Signals John Murphy, who was at their side, whilst directing the men into the safety of the Corradino tunnel.

At about 17.30 on 11 April 1942 she was hit on the port side amidships in the area of the bulkhead between the engine-room and the gearing-room by Junkers Ju 87 aircraft from Sturzkampfgeschwader 3.