Field ambulances used the Communal Cemetery for Commonwealth burials from September 1915 to August 1916, and again during the German advance of March 1918. It contains 127 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. The XV Corps Main Dressing Station was formed at Dernancourt in August 1916, when the adjoining Extension was opened. On 26 March 1918, Dernancourt was evacuated ahead of the German advance, and the Extension remained in their hands until the village was recaptured on 9 August 1918. At the Armistice, the Extension contained more than 1,700 burials; it was then enlarged when graves were brought in from isolated positions in the immediate neighbourhood and some small cemeteries. It now contains the grave of two Rutland soldiers as well as Sergeant Thomas Harris who won the VC as well as the Military Medal. The extension was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.