On commissioning, the ship joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, based at Port Edgar on the Firth of Forth and from March to July 1920, operated in the Baltic. She remained with the 3rd Flotilla when the Royal Navy's Destroyer Flotillas were reorganised from large flotillas of 16 destroyers and a leader to smaller units of eight ships and a leader in 1921. The 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, including "Wild Swan", transferred from the Atlantic Fleet to the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1922 as a result of the Chanak Crisis, a war scare between Britain and Turkey towards the end of the Greco-Turkish War. The 3rd Flotilla assisted in the evacuation of Greeks from Turkish territory after the end of the year, escorting transports carrying Greek troops. On 24–25 December 1923, she took part in the unsuccessful hunt for the French airship "Dixmunde", searching the Gulf of Gabès, although "Dixmunde" had in fact been destroyed in an explosion off Sicily on 21 December. "Wild Swan" had her boilers retubed at Sheerness dockyard in June–July 1926. As a result of the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla was despatched from the Mediterranean to China in order to protect British interests, arriving at Hong Kong on 15 October 1926. "Wild Swan" was based at Jiujiang on the Yangtze river from January to June 1927, and on 26 March "Wild Swan" and the river gunboat intercepted the British steamer "Kiangwo" which had been seized by Chinese Nationalist troops to ferry troops up the Yangtze. After negotiation, the Nationalists released the vessel, paying compensation to the ship's owners. The Flotilla re-assembled at Hong Kong on 1 May 1928 to prepare to return to home waters, but departure was delayed by the Jinan incident, a clash between Chinese Nationalist and Japanese troops, with the Flotilla not leaving until 8 July.