HMS Riviera was built as a fast Cross-Channel steamer for the South East and Chatham Railway Co. The ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 11 August 1914 and converted by Chatham Dockyard to operate four seaplanes. In 1919 the ship returned to civilian use under her original name of RTMS Lairds Isle. She once again entered military service on 28 August 1939 as HMS Laird's Isle, an Armed Boarding Vessel and carried landing craft and tanks on D-Day. She returned to civil use again in 1946.