The area around R.E. Farm Cemetery was much fought over during the Great War.[2] The invading German armies took Wytschaete on 1 November 1914; it was retaken in June 1917 but lost during the Spring Offensive in April 1918; the Allies finally retook the area in September 1918 as the fighting swept out of the Salient with the crumbling of German forces in the face of the Hundred Days Offensive.[3] The site of the cemetery itself remained in Allied hands until the Spring Offensive.[4] The site originally held a farm building, known officially as Ferme des douze Bonniers. British troops called this R.E. Farm.[2]
The cemetery was established by the 1st Dorsets in December 1914. A second cemetery was established nearby, also by the Dorsets, which was concentrated into R.E. Farm Cemetery after the Armistice.[4]