The memorial bears the names of many prominent figures in the South Australian trade union movement and Labor Party, as well as workers who served in the Great War of 1914 -1918.

After the death in 1916 of Hugh Garland, a prominent Port Adelaide trade unionist and founder of the Daily Herald, a committee was formed by the local branch of the Australian Labor Party and representatives of the United Trades and Labour Council to organise for the creation of a memorial to honour the contribution of labour activists in the Port.

[1] The Port Adelaide city council granted permission for the statue to be erected in 1917, and funding for the project was raised through donations from a carnival and a social held by the Ladies Committee of the Labor Party.

Part of the fundraising was carried out by the Port Adelaide Football Club which fielded a Women's side in 1918 to play on Alberton Oval against a team representing Thebarton.

At the ceremony, John Gunn MP, the leader of the State Labor Party, declared that the men whose names appeared on the memorial had "done great things for the trade union movement - when it was not respectable as it is today, when it was almost a crime to be a unionist, when men had to hold union meetings secretly, and when to be known as a unionist meant victimisation".