Fins is a village on the road between Cambrai and Peronne. The British Cemetery is a little south-east of the village in the district of Sorel-le-Grand on the right hand side of the road to Heudicourt.

Fins and Sorel were occupied at the beginning of April, 1917, in the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They were lost on the 23rd March, 1918, after a stubborn defence of Sorel by the 6th K.O.S.B. and the staff of the South African Brigade; and they were regained in the following September. The first British burials at Fins were carried out in the Churchyard and the Churchyard Extension, and the New British Cemetery was not begun until July, 1917. It was used by fighting units (especially the 40th, 61st (South Midland) and 9th (Scottish) Divisions) and Field Ambulances until March, 1918, when it comprised about 590 graves. It was then used by the Germans, who added 255 burials, including 26 British. In September and October, 1918, about 73 British soldiers were buried by the 33rd and other Divisions. Lastly, the cemetery was completed by the concentration of 591 graves after the Armistice from Fins Churchyard Extension and other cemeteries and from the surrounding battlefields.

There are now 1289 First World War casualties commemorated in this site. Of these 208 are unidentified, and special memorials are erected to nine soldiers from the United Kingdom who are believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial records the name of a soldier from the United Kingdom, buried in Fins Churchyard Extension, whose grave could not be found on concentration. Nine graves in Plot VIII, Row E, identified as a whole but not individually, are marked by headstones bearing the words: "Buried near this spot." There are also 276 foreign national casualties commemorated here. This cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.