LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN ALEXANDER MCCRAE

“Pathologist, Poet, Soldier, Physician, Man Among Men”. This simple description is located on a window at the medical school, McGill University, to commemorate John McCrae, the author of the world known poem, “In Flanders Fields”.



John Alexander McCrae was born November 30, 1872 in Guelph, Ontario where he lived all his life. He died on January 28, 1918 in Wimereux, France from pneumonia and meningitis. He was the 2^nd son of Janet Simpson Eckford and Lieutenant Colonel David McCrae. John’s grandparents were Scottish immigrants. He attended the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. He was a physician, poet, soldier, and pathologist.



McCrae worked on his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto 1892-1893. He took 1 year off because of his asthma and then returned to university to finish his B.A. He then returned again for medicine on a scholarship. John completed his medical residency at Robert Garrett Hospital, a children’s convalescent home, in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1898 he received Bachelors degree for medicine. In 1902 he was appointed resident pathologist at Montreal General Hospital and later assistant pathologist to Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. 1904 appointed associate in medicine at Royal, then later in the year he went to England to study for several months and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1905 he set up his own practise and was appointed pathologist at Montreal Foundling & Baby Hospital. 1908 John was appointed physician to Royal Alexandra Hospital for Infectious Disease. In 1910 he went with Lord Grey, Governor General of Canada, on a canoe trip to Hudson Bay as the expedition physician.

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John was a member of the Guelph militia regiment. While he was going to university in Toronto, he was a member of the Toronto militia, The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, where he was eventually promoted to Captain. He was ranked as the Chief of medical services. In the early 1900 he was sent in the 2^nd Canadian contingent to South Africa for the Second Boer War. When he returned he was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Vermont where he taught until 1911. He also taught at McGill University in Montreal. In 1896 he received the rank of a Lieutenant then later on Lieutenant-Colonel of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.



Just before his departure to South Africa, he wrote a letter to a friend: “It is a terrible state of affairs I am going because I think every bachelor should, especially if he has experience of war, ought to go. I am really rather afraid, but more afraid to stay at home with my conscience“.





He was commissioned to lead an artillery battery from Guelph. When the great war broke out in August 1914 he was one of the 1^st to enlist. He was a Brigade Surgeon for the 1^st Brigade Canadian Forces Artillery. On the 20^th of April the 1^st Canadian Division began taking over a section of French trench near Ypres, Belgium. On May 2^nd Lieut. Alex Helmer a friend was K.I.A. by a shell which inspired him to write his poem, “In Flanders Fields”. He wrote the poem while he sat on the back of a medical field ambulance near the advance dressing post at Essex Farm, just north of Ypres. McCrae later discarded the poem, but a fellow officer saved it and sent it to Punch Magazine in John’s name and it was published later that year. On June 1^st he was ordered away from artillery to set up No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in Dannes-Camiers near Boulogne-sur-Mer in Northern France. John treated some of the wounded from battles like Somme, Vimy Ridge, Arras, and Passchendale.

During the summer of 1917 he was troubled by attacks of asthma and bronchitis possibly aggravated by the chlorine gas he inhaled at Ypres. While still commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) at Boulogne January 23^rd he fell ill with pneumonia and was admitted to a military hospital. This same day, John had learned that he was appointed consulting physician to the First British Army, the first Canadian to ever hold this position. Six days later on January 28,1918 John McCrae died from pneumonia and meningitis. He was 45 years old.

With full military honours, John Alexander McCrae was buried the next day at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Wimereux, France a couple of kms up coast from Boulogne. His flag-draped coffin and mourners were led by McCrae’s horse, “Bonfire” with John’s boots reversed in the stirrups. John’s gravestone was placed flat, like the others in his section because of the unstable sandy soil. The Canadian Government placed a memorial to John McCrae which features, “In Flanders Fields,” at the site of the dressing station which sits beside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Essex Farm Cemetery. His gravestone is in plot 4, row H, grave 3.

John McCrae writing the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” has had people all over the world remembering the soldiers who fought and died in the wars, starting with World War I, so we could be here today.

John McCrae will always be remembered for writing “In Flanders Fields,” the poem which is a big part of Remembrance Day in Canada along with the poppy. These things will continue to be important for years to come.

There are two things I learned doing this project on John McCrae that I found interesting. The first thing is the day he fell ill, he had learned that he had been appointed as consulting physician to the First British Army, the first Canadian to ever hold this position. The second thing I learned is after writing his poem, “ In Flanders Fields,” John actually discarded the poem, but a fellow soldier saved it and sent it to Punch Magazine under John’s name, where it was published later that year.