The predecessor of the Tugu Negara is an interwar-era cenotaph originally erected by the colonial British administration on a 10m flat grass-covered ground on a roundabout adjoining Victory Avenue (now part of Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin) and Raja Road, close to the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station and Railway Administration Building.
Originally intended to commemorate the Great War (1914–1918) and honour those from the British Malayan colonies who were killed in the war, the cenotaph's inscription would later include fallen British Malayan soldiers of World War II (1939–1945) after its and resumption of British rule. Names of the fallen are engraved on plaques of the cenotaph as a tribute to their sacrifices.
In 1964, the cenotaph was moved from its original location to the site of the National Monument. The transfer of the cenotaph was done by dismantling the structure into catalogued parts, allowing it to be transported in pieces and reassembled at its new location.
Following its move, inscriptions were added to include fallen soldiers from the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) and a Malay translation in pre-1972 Za'aba Spelling: "To Our Glorious Dead", "Untuk Mengingati Jasa Pahlawan-pahlawan Yang Gugor" ("To Remember the Service of Warriors Who Have Fallen").
