[5] John Newman, in his Monmouthshire volume of The Buildings of Wales, describes the memorial as "the pivotal feature of Beaufort Square" and notes its "eighteenth century idiom".

The memorial is now enclosed with a set of railings constructed in the 1980s by members of the Army Apprentices College based at Beachley Barracks.

It was unveiled on 8 January 1922, in a ceremony presided over by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ariel Evill DSO, a local solicitor who commanded the 1/1st Monmouthshire Regiment in France.

[7] The deck gun was unveiled at the same ceremony by Williams' sister, Mrs Frances Smith, who was accompanied by Captain Edward Unwin VC.

[b][13] Deterioration in the condition of the naval gun generated adverse press comment at the time of the centenary celebrations of the end of the First World War in 2018.