The cemetery, also known as Ravine Wood Cemetery, was founded in March 1915 and closed in August 1917.[1] Being directly on the front line, the cemetery was repeatedly shelled and the original locations of the graves could not be established.[2] The majority[3] of the stones are therefore arrayed in a circle around the Cross of Sacrifice and are marked "known to be buried in this cemetery",[4] with the default additional phrase "Their glory shall not be blotted out", a line suggested by Rudyard Kipling.[5][6]
The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove.[1] The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.[7]
^The main sources imply that all of the gravestones are in a circle around the Cross of Sacrifice. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission planArchived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine of the cemetery, as confirmed by the sources' own photographs, shows that there are also a non-symmetrical number of gravestones against each of the four walls.
