​​​In 1940 the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from the beaches around Dunkirk and the port area. A small number of Canadian men were involved in this, such as Commander James Campbell Clouston, a Canadian Officer in the Royal Navy.

​The Second World War burials here number 593 in total, of which 34 are Canadians. Most of the Canadians buried here were serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. 10 burials are linked to Operation Jubilee in August 1942, the failed landings at Dieppe.

​There are ten men from the Royal Canadian Air Force that were all killed on 13 June 1944. They are from No. 432 and 434 Squadrons which were based respectively at RAF Skipton-on-Swale and RAF Tholthorpe , in the United Kingdom.

​On 13 June, 671 RAF aircraft, including RCAF, targeted railway networks across France that led to the Normandy beachhead, following the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. The men of No. 434 Squadron were shot down around Arras, and those of No. 432 Squadron around Cambrai.

​Buried within the cemetery are two Canadian men who had enlisted with the British Army prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Both men served with the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment and were killed in 1940. They were part of a larger group of men known as the Halifax 100.​