HMS Delhi was a that served with the Royal Navy through the Second World War, from the Caribbean to eastern China. She was laid down in 1917, launched in 1918 and commissioned for service in 1919, serving until decommissioning in mid-1945 due to extensive battle damage, and was to be scrapped in 1948 after lengthy war and peacetime service around the world.
After completion, sea trials and working up as part the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron with the Atlantic Fleet, Delhi served in the Baltic as part of a wider multinational intervention in the Russian Civil War against the nascent Soviet republics. Departing the Baltic, Delhi returned to Britain and spent the next three years with the Atlantic Fleet.
She was to be chosen in 1923, along with her sisters , , and , for the Empire Cruise of the Special Service Squadron, representing the most modern and most powerful cruisers of the Royal Navy, as escorts to the battlecruisers and . Returning in December 1924, she was paid off from the Special Service Squadron and joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron with the Mediterranean Fleet in January 1925. After a brief ten-month detachment to the China Station, engaging in anti-piracy operations, she returned to the Mediterranean before being paid off to refit.
On 15 November 1925, Delhi left Malta in the company of and and cruised to "southern skies" on a goodwill cruise which, from contemporary photographic sources, included Ceylon; Fremantle, Hobart, Jervis Bay, and Sydney (Australia); Christchurch and Wellington (New Zealand).
The 1930s dawned with Delhi cruising the Caribbean as part of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the America and West Indies Station. During the Carib War, Delhis guns were called to deter the actions of local insurgents on Dominica and landed a detachment of Royal Marines. As flagship, 8th Cruiser Squadron, she would once more operate in concert with Hood and Repulse during a visit to the West Indies, along with their escorts, the heavy cruisers and .