She was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Hebburn on the River Tyne, being laid down on 27 August 1953 and launched on 30 November 1955.

[4] She was laid down at Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn shipyard on 27 August 1953,[5][6] She was launched by Countess Mountbatten, the wife of Earl Louis Mounbatten, on 30 November 1955.

[7] Llandaff broke away from her moorings in a storm on 1 March 1956 and was damaged by collisions with the cruiser Bermuda, the frigate Russell and a merchant ship before she could be brought under control.

[9] She re-commissioned for the 5th time at Singapore in 1967 and returned to UK waters in September 1968, completing the commission at Devonport in 1970.

Her trip home was a 'showing the flag' voyage via the Solomon Islands, Cairns (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), Fiji, Rotuma, the Gilbert Islands, Honolulu (Pearl Harbor), Monterey (USA), Long Beach for refuelling, transit through the Panama Canal then Barbados with a short stop in Azores for refuelling, then home to Devonport.