The Memorial commemorates those of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth who lost their lives while serving in units operating from bases in Canada, the British West Indies and the United Sates of America, or while training in Canada and the U.S.A., and who have no known graves.

The main feature of the Ottawa Memorial is a sculptured terrestrial globe in bronze, 3 metres in diameter, on a base formed by three bronze beavers rising from the centre of an ornamental pool. The globe, of open lattice-work corresponding to the lines of latitude and longitude, on which the land masses are super imposed in low relief, is crowned by the Air Forces emblem of a bronze eagle with outspread wings.

Two curved screen walls faced in limestone, bearing cast bronze panels on which the names appear, face inwards towards the globe. They are placed slightly off centre to allow a clear view through the Ottawa Memorial from the central steps on Sussex Drive and from the wide pathway. Two Air Force crest exist in the paving between the screen walls.

A dedicatory inscription, in English on one screen wall and in French on the other, is incised in the stonework between the bronze name panels, which reads as follows:

1939 - 1945
In honoured memory of the men and women of the air forces of the British Commonwealth and Empire who gave their lives in Canada, in the United States of America and neighbouring lands and who have no known grave.

Information courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.