In my youth in Scotland, my grandfather, a veteran sniper of the First World War, and my father, a Royal Air Force veteran of the Second World War, would regale me every Remembrance Day, following the Legion service, about the history of the poppy of Flan
Who were the McCraes, and why is this significant on this solemn Day of Remembrance observed across the world in its various forms?
David McCrae had married Janet Simpson Eckford in Scotland in 1868.
Both families were devoutly religious. David had come from a long line of military officers and had continued that Scottish tradition: fidelity, honesty and utmost commitment to God, to his nation and to his family.
After emigrating to Canada, David and Janet had three children: sons Thomas and John, and daughter Geills.
John was born in Guelph, Ont. on Nov. 30, 1872. It was clear from the beginning that he had a special attachment to his education and to poetry. Winning several scholarships, he progressed from a leading scholar in math and English to medical studies in 1894 through 1897. At the same time, following his family tradition, he continued his interest in military affairs since joining the Army Cadets in his youth.
His parallel interests led him to promotion as captain in the esteemed Canadian Rifles, and while completing his medical internship, he produced many poems that reflected the limited medical science of the day, and its suffering patients.
When the Boer War broke out in South Africa in 1899, John immediately volunteered for service and, in spite of a promising career in local medicine, spent one year there, horrified by the poor treatment of wounded soldiers. Subsequently he resigned from the Canadian Military in 1904.
For the next 10 years, John continued a very diversified medical career, and was respected highly as a teacher of medicine as well as being a distinguished doctor in clinical medicine and pathology.
Both his medical papers and his poetry were widely published.
Once again, everything changed when, in August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany.
Canada, a key member of the British Empire, immediately responded to this crisis, and John McCrae was appointed to the rank of major as brigade-surgeon to the Canadian First Artillery Brigade.
In April 1915, Maj. John McCrae was in the trenches in Flanders and observed firsthand the horrors of trench warfare, the use of deadly gas by the enemy, the spring mud, and especially being surrounded by hundreds of dead and dying.
After one of his close friends from Ontario was killed and buried alongside hundreds of others, he noticed that wild red poppies grew and bloomed quickly between the many crosses in the mud of Flanders Fields. He immediately took notes and started to compose what would be an international anthem of war and remembrance.
In February 1916, he was made chief of medical services in the Canadian General Military Hospital in France. A military promotion followed.
In the fall of 1917, his health started to deteriorate. In January 1918 he developed pneumonia; shortly thereafter he received word of another promotion to chief consulting physician to the British Army, the very first Canadian to achieve this rank of lieutenant-colonel, and chief army medical surgeon
On Jan. 28, 1918, Lt.-Col. John McCrae passed away and was buried with full military honours at Wimereux Military Cemetery, a few miles from Boulogne and Flanders Fields.
The McCrae House in Guelph is a museum and Cenotaph of Remembrance to this distinguished but humble man who rose to the highest rank of military medicine and who penned the most famous military memorial tribute of all time, In Flanders Fields.
Bert MacKay, St. Albert
