Erected in 1923 and one of the few structures in Kota Kinabalu to predate World War II, the North Borneo War Monument stands near the waterfront as a memorial to those who died in the First World War. The column survived the Allied bombing campaign of 1945, which levelled most of Jesselton, and now also serves as an informal memorial to the Sandakan Death March — the forced march of Allied POWs that claimed thousands of lives in the final months of the Japanese occupation.
The monument is a quiet spot in a busy area of the waterfront. A small plaque nearby explains its history. KK was almost entirely rebuilt after the war, which makes this column and the Atkinson Clock Tower the only tangible reminders of the pre-war colonial town.