The memorial is a lamp dedicated to the soldiers from the Forbes district who fought and fell in the Boer War. The lamp is set on steps of freestone mounted on a pedestal of Borenore marble. The pedestal bears the dedication and honour roll inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives during the Boer War. The lamp shaft is constructed of Carrara marble and the lamp made of burnished copper. The memorial was designed by Mr J H Bates and constructed by Mr A McPhee, monumental mason of Forbes, at a cost of £140 (The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 4 January 1905).
The Forbes Memorial Fund was established in 1901 to raise funds for a memorial. Plans were initially for a lamp and fountain to commemorate those who lost their lives in South Africa (Western Champion (Parkes), 29 April 1904). However, by mid-May 1904 the idea of including a fountain was abandoned, and Mr Bates, a local architect, provided the design for the memorial lamp (National Advocate (Bathurst), 20 May 1904). By the end of May the Mayor of Forbes had received a number of tenders for construction (Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 1904). Construction started in August.
The memorial was unveiled on 19 December 1904 by Colonel George Walker Waddell, Acting Commandant of New South Wales, in front of a large gathering, including the Light Horse and members of the Fire Brigade (The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 1904).
The memorial was originally located at the intersection of Lachlan and Templar Streets. In early May 1954 the memorial suffered extensive damage after a vehicle collision, resulting in the wreckage of the streetlamp, the solid top block thrown to the ground and the iron standard broken into pieces. In June 1954 the Forbes RSL sub-Branch received a letter from the Road Safety Council advising that the position of the memorial posed a hazard (Forbes Advocate, 22 June 1954). The memorial was later moved to its present position in Victoria Park.