HMS Whitshed's keel was laid on 3 June 1918 at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. at Wallsend on Tyne.

[2] She was propelled by three Yarrow water tube boilers powering Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines developing 27,000 SHP driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots.

[6] The United States Department of the Navy later passed thanks to British naval authorities for the assistance Wishart and Whitshed provided to Fulton and her crew.

In 1939, HMS Whitshed was reactivated and assigned to the 18th Destroyer Flotilla at Portland for convoy defence in the English Channel and South-West Approaches.

[9][10] In April, she was transferred to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at Dover to assist with support of operations off the Belgian and Dutch coasts.

She then carried supplies to Dunkirk and embarked the Irish Guards before assisting in the evacuation of the Hook of Holland (Operation Ordnance) and Ostend in mid-May.

On her return journey she carried RAF personnel, Prisoners of War and civilians back to England.

Upon release from Op Dynamo she returned to Harwich and convoy defence, and anti-invasion patrols in the North Sea and English Channel.

On the 12th, she carried out a torpedo attack on the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which had broken out of Brest and proceeded via the Dover Straits to Wilhelmshaven in the Channel Dash.

For the remainder of 1942 and most of 1943, Whitshed undertook convoy escort duties and patrolled the North Sea and English Channel.

In June 1944 she joined Escort Group 104 with Montrose, Borage and Loosestrife and escorted convoy EIL1 comprising 12 Landing Ship Tank (LST) and 24 Landing Craft Tank (LCT) from Southend to the assembly area of the Eastern Task Force.

HMS Whitshed was not deployed again operationally and after the end of hostilities she was paid off and reduced to reserve status.