[2] Upon completion, Wolsey was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I.

[4] During the Nanking Incident, Wolsey steamed at full speed from Wuhu to Nanjing on 24 March 1927 to reinforce Emerald and the United States Navy destroyers USS Noa (DD-343) and USS William B. Preston (DD-344) and patrol yacht USS Isabel (PY-10) as they confronted Chinese troops threatening foreigners ashore; she arrived as the other ships opened fire on Chinese positions and, without a target designation for her larger guns, used her machine guns against Chinese snipers which had harassed the other ships and their boats all day.

On 10 May 1940, she was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief, Dover to support Allied military operations during the German offensive into France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands that began that month.

On 13 May, she and the destroyers Boreas, Keith, and Wivern escorted a convoy bringing reinforcements from the United Kingdom for French antiaircraft defenses in ports along the English Channel, and later the same day embarked demolition parties and carried them to Le Havre, France, to destroy port facilities there before advancing German Army forces captured them.

[6] On 23 May, Wolsey embarked a demolition party for Le Havre and then steamed to Calais to assist in the evacuation of British citizens before returning to Dover.

By October 1941, these duties increasingly included operations to intercept German motor torpedo boats – S-boats, known to the Allies as "E-boats" – before they could attack the convoys.

[2] Wolsey was "adopted" by the civil community of Spennymoor in County Durham, England, in a Warship Week national savings campaign in December 1941.

She continued on convoy escort and patrol duty in the North Sea – having radar and radio telephone equipment installed in 1942 to improve her ability to detect German aircraft and small surface craft and give her a greater capability to warn other ships of the approach of enemy aircraft and ships and to communicate while manoeuvering – without further major incident until the surrender of Germany in early May 1945.

[2] After Germany's surrender, Wolsey supported Allied forces reoccupying Norway, and on 14 May 1945 joined the destroyer HMS Vivacious (D36) in escorting minesweepers as they cleared the entrance to Stavanger.