On November 11, 1918, the First Great War ended. The anniversary of that famous date was thereafter designated as Armistice Day, eventually becoming known as Remembrance Day. The symbol of this anniversary has become the poppy, and its adoption stemmed largely from a poem written by a Canadian, Col. John McCrae, that begins with the famous words,
In Flanders Fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row.
Although he only visited East Flamborough during school holidays, John McCrae’s family, and in particular his uncle William McCrae, are a part of the history of the Mountsberg area known as “The McCrae Place”. This Heritage Paper looks at the life of Col. John McCrae, and in the next paper, the contribution of the McCrae family to the history of the northern part of East Flamborough will be documented.
John McCrae was born 30 November 1872, the son of David McCrae (1845-1930) and Janet Simpson Eckford (?-1921), the daughter of Reverend John Eckford of Bruce County. Born in a small stone cottage close to the Speed River in Guelph, that today serves as a museum and displays many mementos of his life, John McCrae grew up always conscious of his family’s military traditions. John and his brother Thomas spent many holidays in Mountsberg on the McCrae farm, playing in the bush with Charles Hewins, who lived on the neighbouring farm “Maplebank”, Lot 6, Concession 13, East Flamborough Township.
Even in his early years, John liked to express his thoughts and ideas.
“In those make-believe times, a certain rock served as his pulpit or stage, depending on his current interest. That rock still remains just where it was a century ago.”1
During his school days he became deeply interested in writing poetry, although the first efforts to be published did not appear until the 1894-95 edition of the University of Toronto’s Varsity magazine.
John McCrae’s ambition was to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Thomas, who had become a physician and Professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.2 In 1884 John graduated in Biology from the University of Toronto. Four years later he graduated with a gold medal and scholarships in pathology and physiology and became an intern at the Toronto General Hospital. From there he went to John Hopkins Medical Centre in Baltimore to do post graduate work, and eventually to Montréal where he became a fellow in pathology at McGill University and an assistant pathologist at Montréal General Hospital.
Between 1899 and 1902, the outbreak of the South African War, (“the Boer War”) offered him a chance to combine his career as a physician with one in the military. In 1900 he was a commissioned Lieutenant in the Canadian Artillery and served in South Africa where he attained the rank of Major and was decorated with the Queen’s Medal.
On returning to Canada, he became an assistant physician at the Royal Victoria Hospital and a lecturer at McGill University. During the years of peace, before the outbreak of World War I, McCrae wrote several poems, most reflecting his experiences in the Boer War. One such poem entitled “The Unconquered Dead” that appeared in a magazine brought him some recognition, and as a result he was admitted to the exclusive Pen and Pencil Club.
Just prior to the outbreak of the war with Germany in 1914, John McCrae became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, England. He enlisted and went to France as a Surgeon with the 1st Brigade Artillery. In April 1915, while taking a break from his work at a field dressing station near Ypres, he looked out across a cemetery where wild poppies were growing in profusion, as they did on many battle fields where there had been heavy fighting, and wrote the poem that was to become famous throughout the English-speaking world.
In Flanders Fields does not glorify war, but was John McCrae’s affirmation of faith in the cause for which the Allies were fighting. It was also an expression of hope that the deaths of so many soldiers in battle had not been in vain.
The English magazine Punch published McCrae’s fifteen line poem, apparently as a filler rather than a feature. But the words attracted the editors of several other magazines who subsequently published it. During the later stages of the war, quotes from the poem appeared on bill-boards advertising Victory Bonds. Only after the war ended did the poem begin to achieve worldwide publicity.
Colonel John McCrae died of pneumonia in 1918, five days after contracting the illness. He was buried with full military honours at Wimereaux, France.
A French woman, Madame E. Guerin, is believed to have been the first person to suggest the poppy as a symbol of the war. The poem John McCrae had written, inspired by the sight of the fields of poppies was then adopted by annual Rememberance Day campaigns that were organized to raise funds for the treatment and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1990, 2022.
