The memorial commemorates 35,942 soldiers of the forces of the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, with no known grave, who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918.

Located in the same cemetery is the Arras Flying Services Memorial (commemorating 991 airmen with no known grave).

Also present at the unveiling ceremony was Richard Bell-Davies, British First World War fighter pilot and Royal Navy officer, and recipient of the Victoria Cross.

Cameron Wilson and the following sportsmen: Isaac Bentham, Dick Harker, Walter Tull, Sandy Turnbull, James Williams, and Cecil Bodington.

There are a total of 13 recipients of the Victoria Cross commemorated on the Arras Memorial or the Arras Flying Services Memorial: Ernest Frederick Beal, Bernard Matthew Cassidy, Alexander Edwards, John Erskine, John Harrison, Lanoe George Hawker, David Philip Hirsch, Basil Arthur Horsfall, George Jarratt, Richard Basil Brandram Jones, Edward Mannock, Oliver Cyril Spencer Watson, Albert White.