In World War I, the Flanders village of Hooge belonged to one of the easternmost sectors of the Ypres Salient, which made it the site of intense and sustained fighting between German and Allied forces.

[7] Following the detonation of the mine on 19 July 1915, the Château de Hooge and the craters (being strategically important in relatively flat countryside) were taken by the British 6th Division on 9 August.

[5] The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by the King of the Belgians in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.

[10] The current cemetery layout was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and has an unusual feature in the stone-faced circular depression at the entrance that evokes the nearby craters[11] at Hooge, Bellewaerde Ridge and Railway Wood, many of which are now lost.

The original Hooge Crater, created nearby on 19 July 1915 by the mine fired by 175th Tunnelling Company, was filled in later in the war as the repository of hundreds of bodies and untenable.