Three thousand Tonbridge men served in the First World War – one in five of the population at that time. Of these, more than 400 – one in seven – perished.

A memorial to these men was erected in 1921 at the junction of Pembury Road with Quarry Hill, near where there is a roundabout today.

It consisted of a 16-foot high monument in local sandstone, inset with tablets of Sicilian marble on which the names of local men who fell were inscribed in lead.In the early 1950s when the memorial was removed following the opening of the new Memorial Garden on the current site. The names of those who died in the first World War were transferred to the wall in this Garden. Seven years after the end of World War II, this garden of remembrance was dedicated by Canon Russell White 'in grateful memory of the men of this town who died in the service of their King and Country'. It's focus is the Memorial Wall on which are inscribed the names of those who died.