Lizard was laid down on 1 January 1911 during the building programme of 1910–11 by Cammell Laird and Company of Birkenhead.

She was present with First Destroyer Flotilla on 28 August 1914 at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, led by the light cruiser Fearless.

The two ships were shadowed by a Royal Navy flotilla that was stationed there to intercept them, of which Lizard was a part, along with Raglan, M28 and Tigress.

The German ships outgunned their opposition, sinking the two monitors, M28 and Raglan, but subsequently ran into a minefield.

During April 1918, as part of the 1918 Naval campaign in the Adriatic, Lizard was deployed to the Corfu division of the Otranto Barrage destroyer patrol.