War had broken out between Greece and Turkey and there was intelligence that the Soviet Union was selling warships to one of the belligerents.

In 1930, the signing of the London Naval Treaty required the Royal Navy to retire older destroyers before acquiring new ones.

Three White-Forster 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.

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

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

[7] Trinidad was laid down by J. Samuel White at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight with the yard number 1507 on 15 September 1917, and launched on 8 May the following year.

On 14 September the following year, the destroyer accompanied the dreadnought battleship Iron Duke to Chanak and then back to Constantinople.

[16] On 22 April 1930, the United Kingdom signed the London Naval Treaty, which limited the total destroyer tonnage that the navy could operate.