The Screen Wall Memorial inscription reads:
To the honoured memory of 139 British sailors and soldiers who gave their lives for their country during the Great War 1914-1918 and who are buried in this cemetery, 53 of whom lie in this plot and 12 others who are not commemorated elsewhere.
The Memorial actually inscribes 67 (not 65) names with rank, arm of service and dates and it is typical of many in UK cemeteries erected in the 1920s to commemorate servicemen of WW1 who are buried in a common grave or who do not have a marked grave elsewhere. The one in this cemetery dates from February 1925 and is of Aberdeen granite. The common grave area lies mainly behind the Screen Wall.
From 1915 to the mid 1960s a grave to the right front of the Screen Wall held the body of Fregatten-Kapitan Alexander Karl Erdmann of SMS Blücher, a German armoured cruiser which was sunk in the Dogger Bank naval action in January 1915. The Royal Navy rescued Captain Erdmann, who was landed at Leith with other survivors from the Blücher and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, where Captain Erdmann, suffering from exposure, contracted pneumonia and died. He was buried in this cemetery with full miltary honours on February 18th 1915 with an escort from Edinburgh Castle provided by the Royal Scots. Captain Erdmann remained here until the mid 1960s when his remains were exhumed and re-interred in the newly established German Military Cemetery in Cannock Chase, Staffs.