Named after Clarence Crase Thomas, she was laid down on 23 March 1918 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company; Virginia.

Recommissioned on 17 June 1940 – as the United States Navy expanded to meet the demands imposed by Neutrality Patrols off American coastlines – Thomas was assigned to Destroyer Division 79 of the Atlantic Squadron and operated briefly in training and exercises off the eastern seaboard.

The "destroyer-for-bases" agreement was made between the UK and the US at the start of September 1940 - under it 50 WWI-era destroyers were transferred to the British in exchange for eases on strategic base sites in the western hemisphere.

Simultaneously renamed HMS St Albans (I15) and commissioned the same day for service in the Royal Navy, the destroyer sailed for the British Isles on 29 September.

On 12 June, she picked up the survivors from the sunken steamship SS Empire Dew – torpedoed that day by the German submarine U-48 – and brought them safely to Liverpool.

During subsequent operations screening convoys in shipping lanes between West Africa and the British Isles, St Albans made a score of attacks on U-boats but did not achieve another kill.

The destroyer's seaworthiness and the seamanship exhibited by her Norwegian crew elicited a warm commendatory signal from the Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches (C-in-C WA).

In March, she escorted the damaged aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from Liverpool to the Clyde and, in the following month, helped to screen convoy PQ 15 as it carried materiel to northern Russia.

For service in World War II, St Albans was awarded the battle honours Atlantic 1941-43, English Channel 1942, Arctic 1942 and North Sea 1943[5]