Toft's design was described as a combination of the real and the ideal. In the centre of the sculpture is a gun carriage flanked on either side by the figure of a soldier, realistically portrayed in a heroic stance bearing the attributes of war. The soldiers personify Courage and Endurance. On a half globe in the middle of the carriage stands an idealised female figure, a personification of Peace. With her left arm she supports a shield bearing both the City arms and an incised image of an olive branch (an attribute of Peace). In her extended right hand there was originally a wreath to the honoured dead. On the front of the pedestal a bronze bas-relief shows two Classical female figures, considered to represent Sympathy and Grief, holding wreaths and supporting a shield bearing the inscription.