Description:Positioned in front of Cannock's town centre 1902 bandstand, the war memorial was dedicated on May 22nd 1923 and formally handed over the the Town Council the following June. It was originally intended the the unveiling be performed by Cannock's most wounded soldier but plans changed and it was performed by Col. J. V. Campbell V.C. The figures were sculpted from Sicilian marble by James Beresford & Sons.
Campbell gained his Victoria Cross in 1916 therough personally rallying his men, allegedly with a hunting horn, after they had been decimated by machine gun fire. In 1917, as a temporary Brigadier General, he was in charge of the 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade, and was at the taking of the Riqueval bridge over the San Quentin Canal at the end of September, 1918. At the time of the ceremony he was Aide-de-Camp to King George V.