A memorial to the 124 Singapore men (all European names) who died in action in World War I. The foundation stone was laid on 15 November 1920 by Sir Lawrence Nunns Guillemard, in the presence of M Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France and Minister of War (1917-1919) (and 'the Tiger of France') as well as the General Officer commanding the troops, Maj-General Sir D.H. Ridout.

It was unveiled on 31 March 1922 by the Duke of Windsor, then the Prince of Wales, who was accompanied by the young Mountbatten, later to become Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The names of World War II dead were added on the reverse side later. The memorial, designed by Denis Santry of Swan & McLaren, is apparently modelled on the Sir Edward Luytens Whitehall Cenotaph (1920). (all this from Edwards & Keys, p 374).

Actually there are no names on the World War II side, but rather two large plaques, both of which read, in English, Chinese, Jawi and Tamil: 'they died so we might live'.

Recently the subject of damage and wear to the monument has been raised in the Straits Times, with most of the blame for the damage being assigned to skateboarders.