Colonel John McCrae Birthplace and Memorial Gardens in Guelph Ontario

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie, 2010

People around the world are familiar with the poem “In Flanders Fields” and recognise the poppy as the universal symbol of the remembrance of all world wars since 1918. The man who wrote that poem was Lt-Col. John McCrae, who was born in Guelph, Ontario. You can visit his birthplace and the Memorial Garden set up in his honour and also learn a great deal about life in late nineteenth century Guelph.

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie, 2010

 
John MacCrae was the second of three children born to David and Janet McCrae in this limestone Ontario-style cottage on November 30, 1872. John McCrae’s great-grandfather, Thomas, immigrated to Guelph from Scotland with his young family in 1849, and quickly set up a lucrative cattle farm and established a woollen mill that would become quite prosperous by the 1860s. Thomas’s grandson, David, had little interest in the woollen mill and set himself up as a prosperous cattle breeder as well as helped in the formation of the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. However, David’s real passion was the Militia. Many people who knew David MacCrae felt he was more interested in “playing soldier” than anything else in his life. In 1879, he became the commanding officer of the 1^st Brigade of Field Unit 70, an artillery unit based in Guelph. At age 70, David accompanied his Brigade to France in 1916, but due to his advanced age, was not allowed onto the battlefield with them.

Janet Eckford married David McCrae in 1870 in Guelph. She too, was from Scotland and came from a long line of Presbyterian Ministers. Her father, John, wanted to join the Scottish 42^nd Highlanders, The Black Watch. However, being the eldest son, his destiny was with the Ministry. That love of all things military, especially those with Scottish connections, would never leave John Eckford.

Life was poor for the Eckfords in Scotland and John’s wife died of typhoid, leaving him to raise his children alone.  He decided to leave the Ministry and take up farming in southern Ontario in 1850. Others might have regretted that decision when having to deal with the harsh Canadian winters and the tough pioneer way of living. However, John’s faith and determination endured and this was his legacy he passed down to his children, including daughter Janet.

When John McCrae was born in 1872, he had more options for his future than his parents had. He attended the Central Public School in downtown Guelph and the Guelph Collegiate Institute. It was at the Institute where McCrae began writing poetry and at age 14, he joined the Highfield Cadet Corp. In 1888, at the age of 16, he became the first Guelph student to win a full scholarship to the University of Toronto. He completed 3 years before he had to take a year off with bad asthma and bronchitis. It was a condition that had plagued him all his life. In that year off, he came back to Guelph to teach maths at the Ontario Agricultural College. McCrae finally returned to his studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1894 and went on to finish a medical degree shortly after. From there, McCrae worked in the US until the Boer War came calling.

McCrae never gave up his love of the military and stayed involved in one form or another. He led the Guelph contingent for the Canadian Field Artillery which left for South Africa in 1899 and spent a year at the Canadian camp. McCrae did not serve in a medical role while in South Africa but served as a gunner with the unit.  Though he felt it was his duty to serve his country, the human costs of war left him feeling disillusioned. It wasn’t war itself that disillusioned McCrae, but rather the poor and inhumane way injured and dying men were treated on the battlefield. Although he was promoted to Major in 1904 for his work with the Canadian Artillery, he would not be directly involved with the Militia again until 1914.

Photo Credit: John McCrae, 1912. Guelph Museums, M983.5.1

In the years between the Boer War and the outbreak of the Great War, McCrae was living a lifetime of experiences. He became a well respected pathologist and took up several high profile positions in a number of Montreal area hospitals. He also became a popular medical instructor at McGill University. Being attached to a university setting allowed McCrae time off in the summers. He fulfilled his love of travel during these times by acting as ship’s surgeon to pay for his trips on passenger liners around the world. He never gave up his love of writing either. He was a leading member of several writers groups, including the Pen and Pencil Club which also boasted Stephen Leacock as a member. During this time, friends called McCrae a lively, outgoing, warm, and sensitive person who was very popular with his patients, staff, and students alike. When Canada was automatically involved in World War One due to its Dominion status, McCrae’s sense of duty for his country kicked in and he was soon off to France. He became surgeon to the First Brigade of the Canadian Artillery in the trenches of Ypres, France.

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums, M968.354.1.2x

The Second Battle of Ypres of 1915 was a deadly one for the Canadian Militia. This was the first instance of Canadians being gassed with chlorine during the war. In a letter back home, McCrae recounted how he and his artillery endured 17 days straight of intense gunning, the stench and stickiness of the mud and how none of them had so much as taken their boots off in over a month. McCrae could only watch helplessly as the gas turned the grass yellow, browned leaves and killed every living being in its path from farm animals to insects. But what shocked McCrae the most was how the chlorine rotted and burned human throats and lungs. Men asphyxiated painfully over several hours to their deaths and McCrae was helpless to stop it. When his good friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer of the 2^nd Canadian Battery Unit, died such a death during the battle, McCrae was prompted to pick up his pen and paper and deal with his grief and frustration. “In Flanders Fields” was written in a trench as he watched men from his artillery bury its dead in simple graves marked with wooden crosses. He sent the poem to one magazine, The Spectator, in London England. It was rejected. A medical colleague suggested he send the poem to Punch Magazine, also in London. McCrae did, and it became an instant hit. “In Flanders Fields” would go on to be the best known poem of World War One and was translated into several languages.

After a few moves to different medical units, McCrae fell very ill in January 1918 after battling asthma and bronchitis since the summer of 1917. He died on January 28th of severe pneumonia and meningitis. He was buried with full military honours at Wimereux Cemetary near Boulogne, France. His gravestone lies down flat because the soil is too sandy to allow the stones to stand upright. He did live to see the popularity of his poem and was said to have been humbled by the recognition around the world. His poem helped to sell near $400 million in Victory Bonds by 1917 in Canada and Britain and because of the immense popularity of his poem, many nations around the world in 1919 adopted the poppy as the symbol of war remembrance.

Today, you can pay tribute to this war legacy by visiting the Colonel John McCrae Birthplace and Memorial Garden in Guelph, Ontario. The Memorial Garden, adjacent to the cottage, was set up by the Royal Canadian Legion in 1946. It is a very peaceful and tranquil setting as you can see from the pictures below.

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie, 2010

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie, 2010

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie, 2010

In the cottage, you will see dining room furniture that had belonged to his grandmother, plus you will learn all kinds of interesting tidbits about the McCrae family, the industrial and farming history of Guelph, and about John McCrae himself. Like the subjects in his poem, McCrae too was a man first, who had lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and been loved. And now he lies not far from Flanders Fields.

I wish to thank the staff of the McCrae Birthplace Museum for spending time with me to relay some interesting facts about the man John McCrae.