From 1931 onwards Upper Hutt Borough Council regularly held its civic Anzac Day ceremonies in Maidstone Park. A flagpole was erected for the purpose. After the Second World War, the council decided to develop a more substantial memorial, and in or around 1950 bought a 120-acre tract of farmland and bush from the Barton family to form what became known as Trentham Memorial Park. In 1958 it also opened war memorial swimming baths at Maidstone Park.
In 1959 memorial gates and a memorial wall were installed at the Fergusson Drive entrance to Trentham Memorial Park. However, Maidstone Park continued as the usual site of the town's Anzac Day ceremonies until 1974, when the venue became the new Upper Hutt war memorial outside the Upper Hutt City Council building (see Upper Hutt area of remembrance). In the 1980s, the memorial wall at Trentham Park was demolished and the gates were transferred to another entrance.
For some years afterwards, the only indication of Trentham Memorial Park's memorial status was its name. This changed on 25 January 2011, when a new memorial was opened on the Fergusson Drive frontage. The sturdy two-metre square concrete slab featured a refurbished mural from the Upper Hutt RSA's former building. The mural incorporated stylised images of a laurel leaf, the Union Jack, the New Zealand flag, a battleship, aircraft and tanks.
On Armistice Day 2020, a descendant of the Gallipoli 'Lone Pine' was planted nearby.
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