Vidette was ordered under the 1916–17 War Emergency Programme from Alexander Stephens & Sons Limited in Linthouse, Govan.

In the picture, taken probably in 1939, she is wearing the funnel bands of the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth; one red over one white.

Early in the war she would have landed the after set of torpedo tubes and shipped a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt gun in lieu.

In September 1942 she was converted to a Long-Range Escort, landing her torpedo equipment and receiving additional anti-submarine weapons.

In July 1940, after the fall of France, Vidette was with Force H during Operation Catapult, the neutralization of the French Fleet.

In January 1941 she sailed with convoy WS 5A as far as Freetown, where she joined the West Africa station local escort.

In October she returned to Gibraltar and refitted; later that month she was detailed to assist HG 75, working to save HMS Cossack, which had been torpedoed.

In September she returned to Britain for conversion as a Long-Range Escort, after which she joined the Western Approaches Command for operations in the North Atlantic.