Canadian soldiers killed in the line of duty have been buried at Beechwood since the North-West Rebellion of 1885. The first monument in the cemetery predates even that, erected in the 1870s by members of the 2nd Ottawa Field Battery to honor their former commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel John B. Turner. A sculptured sandstone cairn, it set a pattern that would define the cemetery's character: the military and the civic, side by side. Today the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the graves of 98 service personnel from World War I and 113 from World War II, along with the Ottawa Cremation Memorial listing 26 personnel cremated in Canada and the United States during the Second World War. The Cross of Sacrifice, a granite cross with an inlaid bronze sword, stands in the field of honour as a permanent marker of the price this country has paid.

Military tradition holds that regimental colours are never destroyed. When new colours are received or a unit is disbanded, the old colours are carried on parade one final time, then laid up in safekeeping. At Beechwood, that safekeeping happens in the Hall of Colours inside the National Memorial Centre, opened by Governor General Michaelle Jean on April 7, 2008. Designed by Robertson Martin Architects, the hall features a memorial stained glass window depicting an oak tree in leaf, honouring Canadian military chaplains. Mounted at ceiling level, the retired standards of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal 22e Regiment, the Royal Canadian Dragoons, and multiple transport and helicopter squadrons hang in perpetual parade. The Royal Canadian Legion's Dominion Command supported the hall with a $50,000 donation, ensuring that these fabric witnesses to service would have a home worthy of their history.

The range of lives marked at Beechwood defies easy summary. Prime Minister Robert Borden rests here alongside Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn. Sandford Fleming, the engineer who gave the world standard time zones, lies near Thomas Fuller, the architect who designed the Parliament Buildings themselves. Tommy Douglas, voted the Greatest Canadian in a 2004 CBC poll for his role in establishing universal healthcare, shares the grounds with Gerhard Herzberg, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The cemetery's connection to hockey runs deep: Hod Stuart, Jack Darragh, Eddie Gerard, Harvey Pulford, Rat Westwick, Punch Broadbent, Clint Benedict, and Bruce Stuart are all Hockey Hall of Famers buried here, along with James Creighton, widely credited as the father of organized ice hockey. Captain Nichola Goddard, the first Canadian female soldier killed in action, was buried at Beechwood in 2006.

Beechwood was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2001, and formally became the National Cemetery of Canada by legislation passed on March 6, 2009, receiving Royal Assent on April 23 of that year. Environment Minister Jim Prentice introduced the bill, arguing that the cemetery "serves as a focal point for our national memorial events, including Remembrance Day, and it is an appropriate place to conduct state burials." The multi-faith character of the grounds reflects the country's diversity: monuments to Our Lady of Fatima, Elisabeth Bruyere, and St. Charbel stand alongside a pagoda in the Chinese section and an Aboriginal Tribute Garden. Pipe Major Sergeant Tom Brown serves as the on-call piper of the National Military Cemetery, performing up to a dozen outdoor funerals a year. Moses Chamberlain Edey designed the entrance gates in 1891, and the Neo-Gothic mausoleum, built by Canada Mausoleums Ltd. in the early 1930s, features stained glass windows by noted artist James Blomfield. It is a place built not for the dead but for the living, a landscape where Canada comes to remember what it has been and to reckon with what it hopes to become.