The memorial lists 827 officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force with no known grave who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918.

The land on which the cemetery and memorial were constructed had been the site of a mill (the Moulin d'Hospice) belonging to the Institute Royal de Messines (a Belgian orphanage and school, itself formerly a Benedictine abbey).

[2] Other memorials in the Mesen area to the forces of New Zealand include a white stone obelisk a short distance to the south.

This obelisk, one of several National Memorials erected by New Zealand, was unveiled by King Albert I of Belgium on 1 August 1924.

[3] Annual remembrance services take place at the memorials in and around Mesen on Anzac Day.