Who was Lt. Col. John McCrae the man?

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums M968.346.1x

So, you know that Lt. Col John McCrae was a surgeon with the Canadian Army during the First World War who just happened to write the most famous war poem of all time which would create a global symbol of war remembrance still in use almost a century after his death. Yet, you may be asking yourself who was John McCrae the man? There are a lot of interesting little stories about the non-military side of John McCrae that a lot of people don’t know. For example, what was the one thing he did to ease the pain of a dying child, what special thing  did he do for his nieces and nephews back home in Guelph, and who was the young woman who captured his heart? Read on and I’ll fill you in on some stories not so well known outside of Guelph and I’ll show you some rarely seen pictures, courtesy of Guelph Museums, of John McCrae. 

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums M968.349.1x

Most people who knew John McCrae could all agree on one thing: he was a very likeable guy. He was outgoing, chatty, loved to write long letters to friends and family when away, and he commanded both respect and appreciation from medical colleagues, patients and students alike. McCrae was also very intelligent and artistic and in 1893, at the age of 21, he won Ontario’s top award for cadet training. He had also become Guelph’s first student to win a full scholarship to the University of Toronto. In his spare time, he liked to write poetry and draw landscape sketches. McCrae House has some of his sketches on display, including an enlarged sketch he made while he was serving in the Boer War in South Africa between 1900 and 1901. One of the comments I get a lot about McCrae, especially by female visitors to the Museum, is “How come he never got married? He was such a good looking man!” It’s true; at 6’1” and with dark hair, he was quite attractive. Though he never did end up marrying, there had been one young woman who stole his heart, then left it broken for some time to come.

Part way through his studies at the University of Toronto, he developed chronic asthma and bronchitis and decided to take a year off, come back to Guelph, and recuperate. In that time, he got a job at the Ontario Agricultural College teaching math. During this time, there was a young woman he met named Alice. Alice was the sister of a friend of his. As time went on, they spent more and more time together. Their Sunday afternoons would have been filled with strolling along the Speed River parkways, picnics, and various family or Church gatherings. It was becoming quite evident to all those around them that something special was blooming. But the romance was sadly to be short lived. Alice got very sick and eventually passed away. We don’t know for sure what Alice died of, but a common cause of death among the reasonably young and healthy was tuberculosis. It left McCrae completely devastated. We know this, because McCrae had written letters to his mother mentioning the sadness and utter despair he felt over Alice’s passing. There was to be no other woman in his life who quite measured up to what he felt for Alice. In fact, there is no further documented evidence of any serious relationship after Alice. Perhaps Alice had been “the one” and with her passing, he focused all his attentions on his studies and eventual career as a doctor.

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums, M968.436.1x

McCrae’s health had improved enough for him to resume his studies and he immersed himself into subjects like biology and pathology to ease the pain of Alice’s death. Perhaps this made him more focused to become a doctor? McCrae graduated with full honours then travelled to the United States where he worked in a couple of noted hospitals including Johns Hopkins. McCrae eventually made his way to Montreal, where he would remain for the rest of his life. McCrae was considered a compassionate doctor, an inspiring teacher, and a good friend among his colleagues. He was one of the first male doctors to openly accept, and even encourage, women to become fully licensed medical doctors and he was known to have mentored a few women students throughout his career. One particular story we have on John McCrae while he was at Alexandria Hospital in Montreal, was of his compassion for a dying eight year old boy.

This young boy was terminally ill and suffered severe pain, which McCrae did his best with the medications available at the time to control. The boy had told him one day that he missed his family pets. The boy would actually be driven to tears when he talked about missing them. So McCrae went to a friend in Montreal who had a cat that had a young litter of kittens. He took one of these kittens and smuggled it into the hospital under his coat every single day for the next few short weeks to let the boy play with the kitten. And, at the end of every day, McCrae would sneak the kitten back out under his coat. Again, we know this because of McCrae’s letters to his mother, brother and sister describing what he did. He noted that the boy’s demeanour improved tremendously. The boy smiled and laughed and the kitten took a liking to the boy as well. McCrae described to his mother how the kitten would curl up on the boy’s lap and fall asleep, and this would make the boy sleep as well. McCrae had said that there was no better pain control than the affections of an animal. Of course, animal therapy is quite widespread among children’s hospitals today, so perhaps McCrae was on to something in 1910 long before it became an accepted science of healing.

Photo Credit: Library and Archives Canada, C-046284

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums M968.358.1x

As John McCrae didn’t have his own children, he doted on his nieces and nephews with wreckless abandon. He would send them little gifts from the far off places he travelled to and would send numerous post cards with short messages of greetings. One interesting collection McCrae House has is a series of letters he wrote to them from Europe during the Great War. But he didn’t sign all of them from Uncle John, but rather signed the name of his horse, Bonfire or his dog, Bonneau. And in addition to this, he drew a horseshoe and a dog’s paw at the bottom of his letters to represent their signatures. His mother had written to tell him that his teasing got the kids so wound up that they couldn’t wait for the next letter from Bonfire and Bonneau! And McCrae didn’t disappoint. The letters from Bonneau and Bonfire kept coming. But in January, 1918, the letters stopped. There would be no more correspondence from Bonfire, Bonneau, or Uncle John. John McCrae died on January 28, 1918 at the age of 45 from complications relating to meningitis and the flu. It was a tragic end of such a young, promising, and well loved life.

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums, M972.5.5.2

McCrae was buried with full military honours at Wimereux, France. In the picture above you can see McCrea’s casket on the gun carriage draped with the Union Flag. The fact that there are a lot of people in attendance is significant. By World War One standards, this was an extremely well attended funeral. Most people didn’t have time to leave their posts to bury a colleague. But for McCrae, doctors, nurses, military officers came out in full force and even though it is hard to tell in this picture, those in attendance are several rows deep. Even the highest ranking Canadian Military officer, General Sir Arthur Currie, attended. He is the tall figure standing to attention, looking at the casket, just to the left of the horse in the picture. The horse is Bonfire, McCrae’s beloved companion. The boots are reversed in the stirrups as a symbol that the horse’s rider has passed away.

We have McCrae’s family to thank that we know so much about the man. With the fame and recognition he received for writing ‘In Flanders Fields’, the family knew the importance of such materials in keeping his memory alive. Letters were saved along with postcards, rare photos, business cards, a medical text book he wrote, a gold watch he received from the City of Guelph for his participation in the Boer War, and countless other items. Perhaps one of the most cherished items is a handwritten copy of ‘In Flanders Fields’. This is only one of six known copies to exist in the world and McCrae House has one of them. But the story of how his World War One medals came to the Museum is one of the most interesting I’ve heard in a while.

Photo Credit: Guelph Museums, M2002.1.1

After McCrae’s death, his medals were sent to his parents in Guelph. Upon their death, John’s sister, Geills took possession of them. She was living in Winnipeg at the time and decided to keep them secure in a safe deposit box with her lawyer. Well, unfortunately, she forgot to tell her family where they were and when she died, the medals were considered lost forever. Sixty-five years later, in the 1990s, the same lawyer’s office decided to move to a new location and had to clear out some old stuff. That included old unclaimed safe deposit boxes. One of the managers of this firm found the medals and took them home for his son to play with. Eventually the son tired of the medals and they were sold to a small town antique dealer. The dealer could see McCrae’s name engraved on the back and figured he may have had something of national importance. He took them to a larger antique dealer who put them up for auction. The Guelph Museums was notified and they embarked on a whirlwind fundraising campaign to raise the funds needed to get the medals back to Guelph and put on display for the public to enjoy and admire. Meanwhile a Toronto businessman, Arthur Lee, had heard about the medals and decided he would buy them to donate to the Guelph Museums. It is a funny story now, as both parties had no idea about each other existence in the bidding. In the end, Arthur Lee paid over $500,000 for the medals and donated them to the Guelph Museums in 1997, where they are currently on display. We all have Mr. Lee’s generosity to thank for seeing these medals end up where they belong.

These are a few questions people have in general about John McCrae the man and thanks to the Guelph Museums and McCrae House, these stories are told to thousands of visitors who come to John McCrae’s birthplace every year from all over the world. And now you too, know a little bit more about the man himself and what made him so special to so many people.

Note: click on the pictures to see larger sizes as well as picture titles.

Military History Guelph, John McCrae, museums, Ontario, War remembrance, WWI