Excluding a brief expedition to Latvia near to the end of that nation's War of Independence in 1919, the destroyer remained in reserve at Devonport until 1936.

Three Yarrow boilers fed steam to two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW) and driving two shafts, giving a design speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) at normal loading and 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph) at deep load.

A full load of 301 long tons (306 t) of fuel oil was carried, which gave a design range of 2,750 nautical miles (5,090 km; 3,160 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[4] The ship was designed to mount two additional 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes either side of the superstructure but this required the forecastle plating to be cut away, making the vessel very wet, so they were removed.

[6] Laid down on 2 February 1918 by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton with the yard number 1102, Serene was launched on 30 November, shortly after the Armistice which ended the First World War.

[11] Five days later, the destroyer arrived in Liepāja along with sister ships Sesame, Shamrock, Strenuous and Torbay in time to see peace restored.

[13] Like many of the class stored in reserve, the ship deteriorated and by the middle of the next decade was considered by the Admiralty to be in too poor condition to return to operations.