Ceres, pennant D 59, was built by John Brown at Clydebank. Mason's chronology calls her a Ceres-class cruiser, laid down on 11 July 1916, launched on 24 March 1917, and completed on 2 June 1917. Uboat.net gives the laying-down as 26 April 1916 and the commissioning as 1 June 1917. The completion date is the one used. She was one of the five Ceres-class cruisers.
Lieutenant-Commander Harry William Vaughan Stephenson, on the retired list, had her on 7 December 1941. Uboat.net gives him 5 December to 30 December 1941, and again from 3 January to 6 April 1942. His officer page records that on 6 December 1941 she left Aden to join convoy CM 23. Captain Henry Hastings McWilliam had her for the four days from 30 December 1941 to 3 January 1942. On 1 March 1942, after convoy WS15A, she was detached at Aden with Colombo and transferred to the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Eastern Fleet, for trade defence and patrol. In April, Mason says, she transferred to Kilindini when Eastern Fleet ships were withdrawn from Ceylon. He does not put her in the search itself.
Captain William Power Carne had her from 6 April to 21 April 1942, the month of that move. Captain Cecil Charles Acland Allen then had her until 11 June 1943. She was based at Kilindini for convoy defence from May through August 1942, refitted at Simonstown in September 1942, and stayed on Indian Ocean convoy defence into 1943. In March 1943 she joined the ocean escort of military convoy WS26 off Durban. In May she was under refit at Bombay, and in June she resumed convoy defence. Acting Captain Roy Carlton Harry had her from 11 June 1943 until 4 November 1943. In September 1943 she was withdrawn from the East Indies. On 27 September she sailed from Suez for Plymouth. The saved chronology prints the September line as "Withdrawn ran operational service in East Indies," and the next lines are the passage home.
In November 1943 it was decided to use her as an accommodation ship, and the complement was reduced. From February 1944 she was an accommodation ship at Devonport. Lieutenant-Commander Wilmot Pynson Bennitt, retired, had her from 4 November 1943 until 14 April 1944. In April she was nominated as depot ship at Gooseberry 1, in the United States sector east of St Martin de Varreville. She was not nominated as a blockship. The 6-inch guns and the pom-poms came out at Devonport, and 20 mm guns were added. Acting Captain Roland Charlton Allen had her from 14 April 1944 into late 1944. On 8 June she sailed for Gooseberry 1, and on 9 June she began duty as depot ship and as control ship for traffic during the build-up. She was released in July, went back to accommodation-ship duty for Plymouth Command in August, and paid off into reserve in October. In December she was transferred to Portsmouth, to Fountain Lake, and she remained an accommodation ship there through August 1945.
Commander Charles Richard Garrett, retired, is listed from 4 December 1944 into the middle of 1945. That start falls inside the "late 1944" still printed against Roland Allen. Both dates are left as the list prints them. Unithistories.com gives Garrett Ceres from 4 December 1944 through July 1945, and it places him before that with Naval Party 1658 at Gooseberry 4. She stayed an accommodation ship at Portsmouth until January 1946, went on the disposal list, and was sold to BISCO on 4 April 1946 for demolition by Hughes Bolcow at Blyth. She arrived in tow on 12 July 1946. Uboat.net spells the yard Bolckow and says she was broken up in July 1946. She was not sunk.
A note on sources. The Eastern Fleet transfer, Kilindini, the Bombay refit, the passage from Suez, Gooseberry 1 and the sale follow Geoffrey Mason's naval-history.net chronology, revised in 2004 and saved as a digitized copy. Uboat.net agrees the launch on 24 March 1917, the pennant D 59, and the sale on 4 April 1946. It disagrees on the laying-down, 26 April 1916 against Mason's 11 July 1916, and on the commissioning, 1 June 1917 against completion on 2 June. Command dates are the uboat.net list, except that Harry's unithistories dates, 31 March 1943 through October 1943, overlap Cecil Allen and are not used in the command line. Garrett's unithistories start, 4 December 1944, matches uboat.net. The April 1942 move to Kilindini is not treated as the Indian Ocean Raid. Mason does not put her in the search.