Essex Farm, in the village of Boezinge 3 kms outside Ypres, was used as an advanced dressing station between April 1915 and August 1917. Based near the front line trenches, the station gave first aid care to the wounded before casualties were transferred to a Casualty Clearing Station. Shelling was constant as it was only two miles from the front line. Nearby is a memorial to John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who worked at Essex Farm and wrote the poem “In Flanders Field the poppies blow” on May 3rd 1915. He wrote the poem after the death of a colleague who was killed as a result of a direct hit on the station by an artillery shell. The cemetery continued to grow as a result of those who did not survive their wounds.