Soldiers from D Company of the 6th battalion, Essex Regiment provided a guard of honour. Southend-on-Sea War Memorial was designated a Grade II listed building on 23 August 1974. In November 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their National Heritage List for England list entries were updated and expanded. As part of this process, Southend's memorial was upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.