The town of Messines, now known as Mesen, was the location of a number of battles during the First World War, beginning when it was captured by German forces in late October-early November 1914.

Later in the war, it formed the southern corner of the Ypres Salient and in June 1917, the New Zealand Division drove the Germans out in the Battle of Messines, taking 3,700 casualties in the process.

[2] The cemetery, designed by the English architect Charles Holden[3] and located on the Mesen-Wulvergem Road, to the west of Mesen, holds the remains of 1,493 Allied soldiers, over half of whom are unknown.

In addition, there are special memorials to thirteen British soldiers buried in other cemeteries in the area during the war but whose graves were destroyed by artillery fire.

[1] The memorial, at the entrance to the cemetery,[2] takes the form of a Cross of Sacrifice on a circular base about which are provided panels with the names of the missing, including that of the All Black George Sellars, killed during the Battle of Messines.