It is named after the Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872–1918), author of the famous poem "In Flanders Fields", which he composed while serving at this site in 1915.

The north-western quarter is privately used as farmland, while the north-east and south-east are partially wooded and dominated by the artificially constructed earthen ridge of the embankment, which runs parallel to the Ieperlee.

[2] Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD fought in the second battle of Ypres when the German army launched one of the first chemical attacks in the history of war.

In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds.... And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way.

There are two memorials to McCrae and his poem on the site: a small lozenge-shaped plaque (Albertina Marker) just off Diksmuidseweg (N369) and a larger wall tablet close to the bunkers used by the Advanced Dressing Station.

[5] In the north-eastern quarter of the memorial site, partially hidden by trees, are the remains of former shelters that were used as emergency housing provided by the Belgian government for the local population during the First World War.