She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and designated HMT Lord Middleton with the pennant number (FY219).

The ship features in a song written by Alan Bell of The Taverners Folk Group: "So spare to her a kindly glance if e'er you're passing by, for over there in the old scrapyard the Lord Middleton must die".

In April 1942, Lord Middelton rescued crew from the torpedoed merchantman Empire Howard.

In May of the same year, she also rescued some of the crew of the Soviet ship Tsiolkovskij after that vessel was eventually sunk by attacks from a German U-boat and two destroyers.

When the ship eventually broke in two and sank five days later, Lord Middleton and HMS Ashanti (F51) pulled 35 more of her crew from the sea.