Martinsart British Cemetery was begun at the end of June, 1916 when 14 men of the 13th Royal Irish Rifles who were killed by a shell were buried in what is now Plot I, Row A.
Martinsart British Cemetery was used as a front-line cemetery until October 1916. It was used again in September 1918 when the V Corps buried a number of officers and men in it whose bodies were found on the battlefield.
Martinsart British Cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 346 graves from the area north, east and south of the village.
Martinsart British Cemetery now contains the graves of 377 soldiers from the United Kingdom, eight from New Zealand, one from Australia, and 96 whose unit could not be ascertained. Additionally 16 German prisoners were buried in it. There are 156 unnamed graves in the cemetery.
Special memorials are erected to six soldiers from the United Kingdom believed to be buried among them.
Martinsart British Cemetery covers an area of 2,395 square yards. The cemetery is bounded on three sides by a hornbeam hedge and on the north and east by a red brick wall. It stands on high ground among cultivated fields. The Cross, on the north side, is flanked by scarlet thorns.
The red Corsehill headstones are an unusual feature of Martinsart British Cemetery. They were used as a trial in the early days of the War Graves Commission to test for the effects of weathering.
