The Lord Lieutenant of Nottingham (William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland) and the Mayor of Nottingham convened a public meeting in 1919 to discuss proposals for a city war memorial, to commemorate around 40,000 men from Nottinghamshire who served in the British armed forces during the First World War, around 10,000 of whom were killed.

Suggestions included building a university, expanding the city's general hospital, an ex-serviceman's organisation, memorial homes, a campanile, a sculpture, or an architectural monument.

Overcoming complaints that the money would be better spent on supporting servicemen and their dependents, the city council announced in October 1922 that the land would become a 36 acres (15 ha) public park with a memorial gateway.

The interior walls of the archway have bronze plaques with inscriptions, including one inscribed with the words of tribute that the French Marshal Foch gave to the Sherwood Foresters in 1918.

After delays attributed to the extensive groundworks, the memorial was unveiled by Edmund Huntsman, Mayor of Nottingham, on 11 November 1927.

A new Great War Memorial was unveiled nearby in 2019 by the Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, with a 5 m (16 ft) high stone monolith surrounded by a raised penannular ring faced with Portland stone and faced with slate panels etched with the names of the 13,501 people from the county of Nottinghamshire who were killed in the First World War, including civilians killed by a Zeppelin raid in 1916, casualties of an explosion at the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell in 1918, and soldiers shot at dawn for cowardice or desertion.