"Tyne Cot" or "Tyne Cottage" was the name given by the Army to a barn which stood 46 metres West of the level crossing on the Passchendaele-Broodseinde road. The barn, which had become the centre of five or six "pill-boxes", was captured by the 3rd Australian Division on the 4th October, 1917, in the advance on Passchendaele. One of these "pill-boxes" was unusually large, and it was used, after its capture, as an Advanced Dressing Station.

From the 6th October to the end of March, 343 graves were made, on two sides of it, by the 50th (Northumbrian) and 33rd Divisions and by two Canadian units. From the 13th April to the 28th September it was in enemy hands again, and then it was recaptured, with Passchendaele, by the Belgian Army. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck and from a few small burial grounds.

It is now the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery in the world. There are now nearly 12,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 8,300 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 38 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 27 from Canada, 15 from Australia and one from New Zealand, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom and four from Canada, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. Also commemorated here are 4 Foreign National war casualties.

The cemetery covers an area of 34,941 square metres and is enclosed by a low flint wall. The Cross of Sacrifice is placed on the original large "pill-box". There are four other "pill-boxes" in the cemetery. The Eastern plots are laid out in the form of a fan, with paths radiating to the Cross; and a high flint wall, 152 metres long, follows their outline on the Eastern edge of the cemetery. This wall carries the names of nearly 35,000 soldiers from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who fell in the Ypres Salient in 1917-18 and whose graves are not known.

The following were among the burial grounds from which British graves were moved into Tyne Cot Cemetery:

• IBERIAN SOUTH CEMETERY and IBERIAN TRENCH CEMETERY, LANGEMARCK, 1,097 metres North of Frezenberg, close to a farm called by the Army "Iberian". These contained the graves of 30 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August-September, 1917, and March, 1918.
• KINK CORNER CEMETERY, ZONNEBEKE, on the road to Frezenberg, containing the graves of 14 soldiers from the United Kingdom, nine from Canada and nine from Australia, who fell in September-November, 1917.
• LEVI COTTAGE CEMETERY, ZONNEBEKE, near the road to Langemarck, containing the graves of ten soldiers from the United Kingdom, eight from Canada and three from Australia, who fell in September-November, 1917.
• OOSTNIEUWKERKE GERMAN CEMETERY, in the village of Oostnieuwkerke, containing the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom.
• PRAET-BOSCH GERMAN CEMETERY, VLADSLOO, in the forest on the road from Kortewilde to Leke. Here were buried six officers of the R.F.C. and R.A.F. who fell in 1917-18.
• STADEN GERMAN CEMETERY, on the South-East side of the road to Stadenberg, containing the graves of 14 soldiers from the United Kingdom and ten from Canada who fell in 1915-1917.
• WATERLOO FARM CEMETERY, PASSCHENDAELE, 543 metres North-East of 's Gravenstafel, containing the graves of ten soldiers from Canada, seven from the United Kingdom and two from New Zealand, who fell in 1917-18.
• ZONNEBEKE BRITISH CEMETERY No.2, on the road between Zonnebeke and Broodseinde, in which the Germans buried 18 men of the 2nd Buffs and 20 of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers who fell in April, 1915.

Burials (Commonwealth War Graves Commission):

• United Kingdom: 8961
• Canada: 1011
• Australia: 1368
• New Zealand: 520
• South Africa: 90
• Other Commonwealth: 2
• Total Commonwealth: 11952
• Other Nationalities: 4