This sign takes the form of a tablet, set upon a stone, on the eastern (seaward) side of Black Hill, south of the coastal town of Stonehaven, where the war memorial is a prominent landmark on the summit.
A photograph of the monument adorns the top, with on the bottom right-hand corner, a sketched design by the architect. The text reads as follows:
'Standing atop Black Hill, Stonehaven's war memorial is a recognisable feature in the landscape, prominent on the skyline and visible for miles around. It commemorates the dead of World War I and II, and was designed by Stonehaven architect John Ellis.
Scots accounted for around one-fifth of the UK's war dead in the First World War - around a quarter of those from Scotland who went to war did not come home, including over 200 men from Stonehaven. Before the end of the First World War, the Stonehaven Town Council had already begun discussing the need for a town memorial, but it was not until sometime after the conflict had ended that plans were taken forward.
In 1921, Stonehaven architect John Ellis was appointed to design a memorial and fundraising began in earnest. Ellis is said to have produced two designs for consideration - the Black Hill "temple" and a cross, made in granite, to be located on the 'plain steals', the paved area at the south side of the Market Buildings on the town Square. The Black Hill memorial was selected by public vote. When Lady Cowdray, who owned most of the land around Stonehaven, heard of the plan for the memorial on the Black Hill, she made arrangements to donate that piece of land to the community as well as donating £300 to the memorial fund.
Ellis's memorial is designed to mimic a ruined Greek temple, octagonal in plan with Doric columns supporting an inscribed entablature or lintel. The resemblance to a ruined classical temple was deliberate, intended to signify the many shortened and ruined lives caused by the conflict.
The memorial "temple" is constructed of local sandstone, and sits on a raised dias of eleven steps leading up to a small wrought iron gate. On the outside of the entablature the names of significant battles of the First World War are carved: Mons, Jutland, Gallipoli, Zeebrugge, Marne, Somme, Vimy and Ypres. The names of Second World War campaigns and battles were later added around its base. Inside the monument a stone memorial stands inscribed with the names of those from Stonehaven who fell during the First World War. The names of those lost during the Second World War are inscribed on a series of tablets around the inner face of the temple. The inner face of the entablature is inscribed with a quotation from Sankey's poem 'Student in Arms': "One by one death challenged them, they smiled in his grim visage and refused to be dismayed."
The memorial was built in 1922 and officially unveiled on Sunday 20th May 1923. A procession was led to the memorial from the Town Square, comprising ex-service men, territorials, the Provost, Magistrates, the Town Council, Church Council, the War Memorial Committee, and a pipe band from Aberdeen. They marched through the town up to the Black Hill via the Bervie Braes. Relatives of the fallen were accommodated in a special enclosure to one side of the steps that led up to the memorial. There followed a dedication service, with hymns and speeches, and Lady Cowdray performed the formal unveiling.'
The sign is situated next to a gate which lies at the beginning of the pathway up the hill to the memorial.