Bulmer was a Clemson-class destroyer, DD-222, named for Captain Roscoe Carlyle Bulmer, who died at Kirkwall, Scotland, on 5 August 1919 while the Northern Mine Barrage was being cleared. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels ordered a destroyer named for him. William Cramp and Sons laid her down at Philadelphia on 11 August 1919. The Navy history dates the launch 20 January 1920. Another account says 22 January. Miss Anita Poor Bulmer, his daughter, sponsored the launch. She was designated DD-222 on 17 July 1920 and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 August 1920, Lieutenant Commander John C. Jennings in command. She was in Destroyer Division 58 with Stewart, Parrott, and Barker.
She was not in the night attack at Balikpapan. Marblehead had burned out a turbine and was down to about 15 knots. Bulmer was given to her, and they met Destroyer Division 59 after the fight.
On 4 February 1942 she was in the Bali Sea with Barker, under Rear Admiral Karel Doorman in De Ruyter, when Japanese aircraft attacked the force about 0955. Lieutenant David Alonzo Harris had her. A bomb hit the roof of Houston's after turret, and Marblehead was hit and straddled. The raid was called off. The hits are not credited to one aircraft. On 15 February, north of Gaspar Strait, near misses shook her machinery spaces. She went in to Tandjong Priok with the cruisers.
In March she and Barker escorted Mount Vernon from Fremantle with the Australian cruiser Adelaide and parted company on the afternoon of 7 March, then did the same with Westpoint and parted before dawn on 27 March. She later escorted between the West Coast and Pearl Harbor, and in May 1943 she moved to the Atlantic. On 10 June 1943, off Casco Bay, Lieutenant Commander Louis Frank Volk had her in company with Barker and the battleship Iowa.
On 1 December 1944 she was reclassified AG-86. She was decommissioned on 16 August 1946 and struck on 25 September 1946. The Naval Cover Museum dates the sale 27 February 1947. Other accounts date it 19 February 1947. She was broken up. She received two battle stars.