1872 Birth of John McCrae
John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario into a family of soldiers and doctors. McCrae became both, serving as an artillery officer in the Boer War and becoming a physician. When the First World War began, he was appointed to the rank of major and made the Medical Officer of an artillery unit. In 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres on the Western Front a close friend of his was killed, inspiring McCrae to write the poem for which he is best known.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Though the poem is often read nowadays as a tragic anti-war piece, McCrae meant it otherwise, as a prod to enlistment and service. It inspired a number of enthusiastic responses including:
America’s Answer
R.W. Lillard
Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead
The fight that you so bravely led
We’ve taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep,
With each a cross to mark his bed,
And poppies blowing overhead,
When once his own life-blood ran red
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders Fields.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
The torch ye threw to us we caught,
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom’s light shall never die!
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders’ fields.
McCrae never lived to return from the war. He succumbed to pneumonia in January 1918 and is buried in France.