Historical Information (Source: CWGC)

This part of the Somme did not see fighting until 26-27 March 1918, when the Third Army withdrew to a line between Albert and Sailly-le-Sec ahead of the German advance. This line was held until 4 July, when it was advanced nearly to Sailly-Laurette, and on 8 August, the first day of the Battle of Amiens, Sailly-Laurette and the road to Morlancourt were disengaged. The cemetery (named from a brick beacon on the summit of the ridge a little south-east of the village) was made by the 18th Division Burial Officer on 15 August when the 12th (Eastern), 18th and 58th (London) Divisions attacked from the Ancre to the Somme and the Australian Corps beyond the Somme. At the Armistice, the original burials numbered 109 (now Plot III, Rows C, E, G and I), chiefly from the 12th Division, but it was then greatly increased when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and some smaller burial grounds.

Beacon Cemetery now contains 772 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 257 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to four casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.