The Queensland Government despatched volunteer contingents of mounted infantrymen to the war to aid the forces of the British Commonwealth involved in the armed intervention.

In the years after the war a public committee was established to erect a memorial to the fallen, but the funds raised were insufficient and the project lapsed.

[1] In 1912 James Laurence Watts, a Brisbane sculptor, was commissioned to provide "an equestrian statue in bronze" for the South African Fallen Soldiers Memorial Committee.

His commission was conditional on his final design being scrutinised by a panel representing "no less than four areas of expertise", which included art, veterinary surgery, architecture and soldiery.

[1] On two sides of the trachyte pedestal large bronze plaques contain the names of the eighty-nine Queensland soldiers who lost their lives in the South African war.

The Memorial reflects the strong parochial feeling still evident in post-Federation Queensland and of a continuing attachment to British Imperialism.

The Memorial reflects the strong parochial feeling still evident in post-Federation Queensland and of a continuing attachment to British Imperialism.