On 26 November 1940 USS Bailey was decommissioned at Halifax Nova Scotia, and transferred in the destroyer land bases exchange to Great Britain, being renamed HMS Reading she was commissioned 28 November 1940 for service with the 5th "Town" Flotilla and arrived at Plymouth, England, 17 December 1940. Between December 1940 and July 1941 she escorted convoys in the Atlantic, working out of Liverpool. In July 1941 she joined the Newfoundland Escort Group with which she remained until May 1942. Between May and October I 1942 she underwent a yard overhaul, after which she served as a target ship tor aircraft from the Air Station, Fearn, Scotland, and continued in this assignment until July 1945 when she was handed over to ship breakers at Rosyth.

Decommissioned and sold for scrap on 24 Jul, 1945 at Inverkeithing.

Commanding Officers:
Cdr. Ralph Heathcote, RN
26 November 1940 – 1 March 1941

Lt.Cdr. Dennis Victor Clift, RN
1 March 1941 – 12 June 1942

Lt. T.J. Nicholls, RN
12 June 1942 – 16 August 1942

Lt.Cdr. Hedworth Lambton, RN (retired)
16 August 1942 – 8 February 1943

A/Lt.Cdr. Robert E. Blyth, RNVR
8 February 1943 – November 1943

T/Lt. Douglas Louis Ziedler, RNVR
November 1943 – 16 February 1944

A/T/Lt.Cdr. Wynyard Paul Bush, DSC, RNVR
16 February 1944 – June 1944

T/A/Lt.Cdr. Gwilym Pinkerton Evans, DSC, RNVR
June 1944 – still in command in July 1945 according to the Navy List

HMS Reading is not listed in the October 1945 Navy List