This imposing memorial arch with Chinese style roofing was erected in 1905 by the Chinese and other inhabitants of Kuala Pilah in honour of the Hon. Martin Lister, a British colonial official who had had a long connection with the town and State.

Lister, a member of the British aristocracy, first came to this country in 1883 as a coffee planter, but was soon absorbed (in 1884) into the colonial administration. He was posted to Kuala Pilah in 1886 as the second British Collector of Revenue for the Sri Menanti Federation, continued in the same capacity for Old Negeri Sembilan, and became the first British Resident of re-unified Negeri Sembilan in 1895. He died two years later, in the prime of life, at Suez on his way back to England on sick leave as a result of blood poisoning contracted on a jungle outing.