HMS Wolsey number became G40 in June 1918; it was changed to D98 during the interwar period. 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. After the conclusion of World War I, "Wolsey" served in the Atlantic Fleet. In the late 1920s, she operated on the China Station. After the British river steamer SS "Kutwo" collided with and sank a Chinese troop-carrying launch on the Yangtze River and Chinese authorities threatened to seize her at Nanking in early March 1927, "Wolsey" arrived
History of the United Kingdom during the First World War accompanying cruisers and destroyers bombarded the coastal ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Although the ports had some military importance, the main aim of the raid was to entice out defending ships which could then be picked off either by the battlecruiser squadron or by the full High Seas Fleet, which was stationed at sea ready to intervene if an opportunity presented itself. The result was inconclusive: nearby Royal Navy units were too small to intervene so largely kept clear of the German battlecruisers, and the German ships withdrew before the first British fast response battlecruiser squadron or the Grand Fleet