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Lieutenant Colonel JOHN McCRAE

Regiment & Unit/Ship

Canadian Army Medical Corps

Date of Death

Died 28 January 1918

Age 45 years old

Buried or commemorated at

WIMEREUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY

IV. H. 3.

France

VC presentation photos sent in by Steve Rogers TWGPP - 2013: Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France - headstone of Lt.-Col. John McCrae, author of the poem "In Flanders Fields."

Photographer: TWGPP

  • Country of Service Canadian
  • Additional Info Son of Col. David McCrae and Janet Simpson Eckford McCrae, of Guelph, Ontario.
  • N.B. John McCrae was a Canadian doctor who started to write verse at McGill University. He served as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Field Artillery during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and he was appointed as the Medical Officer to the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery at the beginning of the First World War. His poem 'In Flanders Fields' first appeared in Punch during December 1915 and became the most famous poem of the War. It was written during the second Battle of Ypres. In January 1918 McCrae was appointed consultant to all the British Armies in France, but he died of pneumonia before he could take up the post. A book of his poems was published in 1919. McCrae also wrote a book on pathology.
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