HMS Jamaica was launched on 16 November 1940 and completed on 29 June 1942. Following her commissioning she provided distant cover to convoy PQ18

. She was assigned to the Centre Task Force of North African invasion in early November and was unsuccessfully attacked by a Vichy French submarine. The Arctic convoys had been suspended at PQ 18, but were scheduled to resume on 15 December with convoy JW51A. HMS Jamaica and HMS Sheffield, with several escorting destroyers, formed Force R and were tasked to cover the convoy against any German surface ships. The convoy was not spotted by the Germans and arrived at the Kola Inlet without incident on 25 December.

She participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942 and the Battle of North Cape in 1943. Jamaica escorted several carriers in 1944 as they flew off airstrikes that attacked the Tirpitz in northern Norway. Later in the year she had an extensive refit to prepare her for service with the British Pacific Fleet, but the war ended before she reached the Pacific.

Jamaica spent the late 1940s in the Far East and on the North America and West Indies Station. When the Korean War began in 1950 she was ordered, in cooperation with the USN, to bombard North Korean troops as they advanced down the eastern coast. She also provided fire support during the Inchon Landing later that year. Jamaica was refitted late in the year and returned to the UK in early 1951 where she was placed in Reserve

She was recommissioned in 1954 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1955 Jamaica played the part of HMS Exeter in the film Battle of the River Plate, with her wartime partner HMS Sheffield as HMS Ajax. 

In 1956 Jamaica participated in the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal.

 Jamaica was paid off in 1958 and sold for scrap in 1960