This cemetery is within the Old Cairo cemetery area, which is situated approximately 5 kilometres south east of the centre of Cairo. At the outbreak of the First World War, Cairo was headquarters to the United Kingdom garrison in Egypt. With Alexandria, it became the main hospital centre for Gallipoli in 1915 and later dealt with the sick and wounded from operations in Egypt and Palestine. Cairo was again a significant hospital centre during the Second World War. There are now 2,056 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War and 340 from the Second World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery.