Known as the Singapore Memorial or locally as the Kranji War Memorial: the memorial consists of a series of columns representing the Army, which marches in columns, the cover over the columns is shaped after of the wings of a plane, representing the Air Force and the shape at the top resembles the periscope of a submarine, representing the Navy. Over 24,000 names of allied servicemen, whose bodies were never found, are inscribed on the 12 columns of the memorial itself.

The War Memorial represents the three branches of the military - the Air Force, Army and Navy and is dedicated to the men and women from United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Malaya, the Netherlands and New Zealand who died defending Singapore and Malaya against the invading Japanese forces during the Second World War.

Before 1939 the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, it was the site of a large ammunition magazine. On 8 February 1942, the Japanese crossed the Johore Straits in strength, landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two miles of the place where the war cemetery now stands. On the evening of 9 February, they launched an attack and during the next few days fierce fighting ensued. After the fall of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was organised nearby at Woodlands. After the reoccupation of Singapore, Kranji War Cemetery was developed by the Army War Graves Service from a small cemetery started by the POWs. Within Kranji War Cemetery stands the SINGAPORE MEMORIAL, bearing the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land, air and sea forces who have no known grave. Many of these have no known date of death and are accorded within our records the date or period from when they were known to be missing or captured. In addition to the Singapore Memorial, the cemetery also contains the following memorials:- The SINGAPORE (UNMAINTAINABLE GRAVES) MEMORIAL, which commemorates more than 250 casualties who died in campaigns in Singapore and Malaya, whose known graves in civil cemeteries could not be assured maintenance and on religious grounds could not be moved to a war cemetery. The SINGAPORE CREMATION MEMORIAL, which commemorates almost 800 casualties, mostly of the Indian forces, whose remains were cremated in accordance with their religious beliefs. The SINGAPORE CIVIL HOSPITAL GRAVE MEMORIAL, which commemorates 107 Commonwealth military casualties buried here. During the last hours of the Battle of Singapore, hundreds of wounded civilians and servicemen taken prisoner were brought to the hospital. The number of fatalities was such that burial in the normal manner was impractical so an emergency water tank, which had been dug in the grounds of the hospital before the war, was used as a grave. After the war, as individual identification would have been impossible, the grave site was left undisturbed, the plot enclosed, the ground consecrated and a cross erected.

For further information: www.cwgc.org

Kranji was developed into a permanent war cemetery by the Army War Graves Service, the present form was arranged by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

9 Woodlands Road, Kranji, Singapore.

The memorial stands in Kranji War Cemetery, 22 kilometres from the city of Singapore, on the north side of Singapore Island overlooking the Straits of Johore.