During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases and the Ypres battlefields.

Because of its location close to the Ypres frontline, but out of the range of most German field artillery, Lijssenthoek was chosen as the site of Allied casualty clearing stations.

[2] A farm called Remi Quaghebeur became the centre point at Lijssenthoek around which a number of field hospitals were established.

[3] Rail tracks were constructed from the main railway line to enable ambulance trains to bring Allied wounded into these medical units from Poperinge and to take them from there on to the large military hospitals on the French coast.

Between autumn 1914 and early summer 1915, this unit began to bury casualties who had been treated at their Lijssenthoek field hospital but had not survived their wounds.

[4] There are 9,901 graves of soldiers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India[1] (24 of the 9,901 Commonwealth war dead are unidentified),[2] and 883 graves of soldiers from 30[6] other nationalities including France, Germany and the United States[1] (11 of these 883 war dead are unidentified).

[2] A section with 35 graves is for workers of the Chinese Labour Corps who died in the area of Ypres and Poperinge during and just after the First World War.

In this role, the Chinese Labour Corps cleared battlefields, dug graves as well as trenches and carried out other such tasks which were often difficult and dangerous.