Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae Plaque

Guelph, Ontario
Type
Other

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Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1872, he served with an artillery battery in the South African War and had a successful civilian medical career. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the patriotic 41-year-old enlisted again and would be appointed as a medical officer with the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery.

During the Second Battle of Ypres in the spring of 1915, McCrae was tending to the wounded in a part of Belgium traditionally called Flanders. On May 2, a close friend was killed in action and this painful loss inspired McCrae to write In Flanders Fields the next day. It would be published in Britain’s Punch magazine and quickly became one of the best-known poems of the war, helping make the poppy an international symbol of remembrance. Sadly, Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae would not survive the conflict, dying of illness in January 1918.

Inscription

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MCCRAE
1872-1918

The distinguished soldier, physician and poet was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario.
John McCrae graduated from the University of Toronto in medicine, practised as a
pathologist and taught medicine at McGill University in Montreal. In 1899, he served
in the South African War as an officer with the Royal Canadian Field Artillery. At the
outbreak of the First World War, he re-enlisted with the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field
Artillery, as its Medical Officer. In 1915, contemplating the poppies growing amid the
death and devastation at Ypres, Belgium, McCrae drafted the poem In Flanders Fields
in memory of the dead. The poem appeared in Punch magazine that December and
quickly became popular. Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae then served at No. 3 Canadian
General Hospital in Boulogne as the Officer in Charge of Medicine. In January 1918,
he died after contracting pneumonia and meningitis. McCrae is buried in Wimereux,
France. McCrae's poem eventually inspired the use of the poppy internationally as an
iconic symbol of remembrance.

Ontario Heritage, an agency of the Government of Ontario

Visitor information

Location
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae Plaque

Water Street and McCrae Boulevard
Guelph
Ontario
GPS Coordinates
Lat. 43.5360355
Long. -80.2451883
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