The memorial was designed by Hubert Worthington and unveiled by Viscount Montgomery of Alamein on 24 October 1954.

For land forces the memorial largely commemorates those who died during the Western Desert campaign as well as in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran and have no known grave.

For airmen the memorial commemorates those that died in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar and in service of the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave.

[1] The memorial is collocated with El Alamein War Cemetery, which largely contains the graves of men who died at all stages of the Western Desert Campaign.

[2] The inscription at the entrance to the cloister reads: Within this cloister are inscribed the names of the soldiers and airmen of the British Commonwealth and Empire who died fighting on land or in the air where two continents meet and to whom the fortune of war denied a known and honoured grave.