Ploegsteert Wood Military Cemetery was made by the enclosure of a number of small regimental cemeteries. Plot II was originally the Somerset Light Infantry Cemetery, made by the 1st Battalion in December 1914. The 32 graves it contains, as well as ten in Plot I, are from that battalion. Plot IV, the Bucks Cemetery, was made by the 1st/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, in April 1915. 11 of the 20 graves it contains are from that battalion. Plot III contains 16 graves of the 1/5th Gloucesters, made between April and May 1915, and in Plots III and I there are 12 graves of the 8th Loyal North Lancs from October to December 1915. However, these plots were known as Canadian Cemetery, Strand, from the 28 Canadian graves of June to October 1915 in Plot III, and from the trench running nearby.

The cemetery as a whole was used sparingly in 1916, and again by the New Zealand Division in July and August 1917. It was in German hands between 10 April and 29 September 1918.

Ploegsteert Wood Military Cemetery contains 164 First World War burials. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw.