"Raleigh" was named for the Elizabethan explorer and statesman Sir Walter Raleigh and was the sixth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down by William Beardmore & Company at their shipyard in Dalmuir on 9 December 1915, launched on 28 August 1919 and completed in July 1921. Captain Sir Arthur Bromley was appointed in command on 14 February 1920. "Raleigh" was intended to serve as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Trevylyan Napier, Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station, and departed on 26 July, bound for Bermuda to rendezvous with the admiral, but he died on 30 July.