HMS Ceres was launched on 24 March 1917 and commissioned on 1 June 1917.

In July 1917 Ceres joined the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron as part of the Grand Fleet. She was transferred to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron in 1919 which was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean. In 1927 Ceres returned to the UK for service with the Home fleet. During 1929-1931 she was refitted and placed in reserve, but reactivated in 1932 to join the Mediterranean Fleet. 

At the outbreak of war in 1939 Ceres was recommissioned and placed on the Norther Patrol. On February 15th 1940, she deployed to the Mediterranean, based at Malta. 

During April and May 1940, Ceres joined the Eastern Fleet based at Singapore. The following month she was assigned to operate in the Indian Ocean bases at Colombo and then Bombay. She then spent several months off the east coast of Africa based at Mombasa. She was sent to the Seychelles and other islands to search for German commerce raiders, who were preying on allied shipping in the area. From 4 until 9 August 1940 Ceres assisted with the evacuation of civilians and sick personnel from British Somaliland.

On New Year's Day 1942, in company with HMS Bridgewater she escorted the 18 ships of Convoy WS-14 to South Africa from the U.K. with reinforcements for the Middle East. Ceres spent two months in the Persian Gulf, and then arrived at Simonstown for a three-month refit. Once operational again she was based at Aden and participated in the fall of Djibouti to the allies. She spent the rest of the year escorting convoys to Durban. She finally returned to Home Waters and her homeport of Devonport in October 1943. By now she had steamed over 235,000 miles in her career.

In 1943 and 1944, HMS Ceres was used as "station ship" based at RNC Dartmouth. In late April 1944, HMS Ceres was refitted with radar and anti-aircraft weaponry and assigned to the US Task Force 127 during the Normandy invasion. Ceres was assigned as one of the two Shuttle Control ships at Omaha Beach and, anchored inshore, directed the assembly and departure of unloaded, outbound vessels and convoys. 

HMS Ceres remained on station off Omaha Beach for the entire summer of 1944 from the early hours of 7 June until the end of August 1944.  After the end of the war, and by now obsolete, she was placed in reserve and used as an accommodation ship at Portsmouth.

  Ceres was broken up at Blyth in July 1946, after 29 years in service.