The cemetery was built between 1924 and 1928 and a great number of its dead were killed in the Battle of the Lys in April 1918.

[1] Other burials were moved to the site from the rest of France, Belgium and German prisoner of war camps.

[3] In 2014, the cemetery was one of several across France and Belgium listed to be nominated to be UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites.

[2] President of France Emmanuel Macron and President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa led a ceremony of 2,000 invitees at the cemetery on the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Lys, 9 April 2018.

[4] The site was also visited by Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio (2004)[5] and prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho (2014).