The Eagle Squadrons were RAF fighter squadrons, mostly manned by US citizens who volunteered to serve before Nazi Germanydeclared war on the US in December 1941. At that time, US citizens were prohibited from serving in the armed forces of a foreign power, on pain of losing their citizenship (although those affected were pardoned by Congress in 1944).
The memorial comprises a tapering 4.6 metres (15 ft)–high obelisk of pale sandstone, topped by a 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in)–high bronze sculpture of an eagle holding its wings aloft. The head of the eagle is painted white, so that it resembles an American bald eagle. It was commissioned by the American newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst and designed by Tim Kempster, who was also involved in the design of the Fleet Air Arm Memorial. The bronze sculpture is by Elisabeth Frink.
The four sides of the stone column each bear inscriptions. The main side, to the north, has a spread eagle from the Great Seal of the United States, holding arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other, and an inscription EAGLE SQUADRONS / THIS MEMORIAL IS TO THE / MEMORY OF THE 244 AMERICAN / AND 16 BRITISH FIGHTER PILOTS / AND OTHER PERSONNEL WHO / SERVED IN THE THREE ROYAL / AIR FORCE EAGLE SQUADRONS / PRIOR TO THE PARTICIPATION OF / THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR / THEY SERVED WITH VALOR / FOUNDED BY CHARLES F SWEENY, JUNE 1940 / ERECTED THROUGH THE GENEROSITY / OF THE / HEARST CORPORATION OF AMERICA / IN THE NAME OF / WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST / PUBLISHER.
Each of the three other sides is dedicated to one of the Eagle Squadrons – 133 Squadron, 121 Squadron, or 71 Squadron – with a depiction of each squadron's crest and motto, and a list of those who served: 289 individuals, including 71 war dead.
^ abWard-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, vol. 14, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, p. 57, ISBN978-1-84631-691-3