The war had not even ended when people started to talk about creating a suitable memorial to the men who were fighting overseas. A formal Peace Committee was established in Thames in February 1920, a year later the decision had been made to erect an obelisk and then more time passed while a site was chosen.

A design competition was announced in February 1922 and key donors to the project included Hetherington’s Drapery, A & G Price, Thames Borough Council and Thames County Council. Dunedin architect H McDowell-Smith, who also designed a war memorial at Anderson’s Bay, Dunedin, appears to have won the competition.

Tenders were called on 10 April 1923 and the memorial was unveiled on ANZAC Day [25 April] in 1925. As part of Thames’ jubilee celebrations in July 1927 the memorial was floodlit.

The memorial stands on the site of Ngati Huarere’s Tutuka pa. Notably it commemorates both those who died during World War I and those who returned home after the war.