The village of Contalmaison was reached on 1 July 1916 by small parties of the 34th Division. It was stormed by the 23rd Division on 7 July, and some men of the Northumberland Fusiliers taken four days earlier were released; but it was lost the same afternoon. Contalmaison was not captured finally until the 8th and 9th Yorkshire Regiment cleared it on 10 July.
Contalmaison was lost again in March 1918, and recaptured by the 38th (Welsh) Division on the evening of the following 24th August.
The underground fortifications made by the enemy before 1916 played an important part in the defence of the village.
Contalmaison Château Cemetery was begun by fighting units on the evening of the 14th July, 1916, and used from September, 1916 to March, 1917 by Field Ambulances.
Later, a few burials were made in Plot I, Rows B and C, in August and September 1918. Forty seven graves were added after the Armistice by concentrations from battlefields of the Somme and the Ancre, and 18 German graves and one French were removed to other burial grounds.
Contalmaison Château Cemetery covers an area of 1,349 square metres and is enclosed by a flint and rubble wall..
Contalmaison Château Cemetery is within the Château grounds on the north side of the main street of the village.
