The cemetery was first used from September to December 1917 for burials from the 3rd Australian and 44th Casualty Clearing Stations, which had been moved to Poperinghe (now Poperinge) in preparation for the 1917 Battle of Ypres. The cemetery was used again by fighting units between March and October 1918, the period of the German offensive in Flanders.
The cemetery contains 1,556 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 37 German war graves from this period. There are also 24 Second World War burials in the cemetery, all dating from the Allied retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.
Burials (Commonwealth War Graves Commission):
- United Kingdom: 961 (+ 22 WW II)
- Canada: 299
- Australia: 150
- New Zealand: 117
- South Africa: 26
- Undivided India: 1
- Other Commonwealth: 2
- Total Commonwealth: 1556 (+ 22 WW II)
- Other Nationalities: 38