1872–1918
John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and teacher who is best known for his memorial poem "In Flanders Fields" was born on November 30, 1872, in Guelph, Ontario. McCrae began writing poetry when he was a student at the Guelph Collegiate Institute and also showed an early interest in joining the military.
At 16 John developed severe asthma and dealt with it for the rest of his life. However he was able to teach English and mathematics at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph before returning to the University of Toronto in 1893. He graduated with with a bachelor of medicine degree in 1898. While he studied to be a physician, he also continued writing poetry, publishing sixteen poems and a number of short stories in a variety of magazines.
McCrae felt an obligation to serve in the armed forces. He sailed to Africa and spent a year there with an artillery battery from his hometown. However, McCrae was shocked by the inadequate treatment of the sick and injured soldiers on the battlefield, leading him to resign and cease his involvement with the military for several years.
Returning to his medical career in 1901, McCrae dived into research work in pathology while also serving as resident assistant pathologist at Montreal General Hospital. After a quick succession of promotions, in 1904, he moved to England, where he studied and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1905, he set up his own practice while also lecturing in clinical medicine and pathology, attending medical conferences in Europe, and writing for medical journals and textbooks.
In April 1915, just a year after WWI began McCrae was stationed in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders, during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres. In the midst of the tragic warfare, McCrae’s friend, twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed by artillery fire and buried in a makeshift grave. The following day, McCrae, after seeing the field of makeshift graves blooming with wild poppies, wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” which would be the second-to-last poem he would ever write.
