Towards the end of WWI, tens of thousands of Chinese labourers were recruited by the British government to perform noncombat jobs in Europe, including the gruesome task of recovering and burying Allied war dead. Some 80 of these travailleurs chinois (Chinese labourers) and Indians who served with British forces are buried in this Commonwealth cemetery, which is 15km south of Arras, just off the D919 at the southern edge of the village of Ayette.
Many Chinese labourers died in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918–19. Their gravestones are etched in Chinese and English with inscriptions such as 'A good reputation endures forever', 'A noble duty bravely done' and 'Faithful unto death'. The nearby graves of Indians are marked in Hindi or Arabic.
