The memorial stands on a man-made mound in the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, Staffordshire.
Portland stone steps lead up the mound to a 6m high wall of Portland forming an incomplete circle of 43m diameter. The walls comprise 1,374 panels. The 15,530 names of the servicemen and women who have died in the course of their duty since 1945 are inscribed on 700 of the panels. The 360 tonnes of finished stone for the memorial was made and erected in less than a year.