The war cemetery was established in April 1918 during the Battle of the Lys for use by British field ambulances and fighting units.

The village of Reningelst was in Allied hands from the autumn of 1914 to the end of the First World War.

The two burials from this time date from May 1940 and the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force ahead of the German advance.

Grootebeek British Cemetery contains 109 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War.

One grave destroyed by shell fire is now represented by a special memorial, and another special memorial records the name of Private John Lynn VC, DCM (1887–1915 †) who was buried in Vlamertinge Churchyard but whose grave was similarly destroyed by fighting.