Medals belonging to Lt. Col. John McCrae are now a permanent part of the McCrae House collection here.
The city announced in a press released McCrae House museum acknowledges and appreciates the donations and support of the family of Lt. Col. John McCrae (1872-1918).
As a result of that support, McCrae House museum is able to honour the memory and work of McCrae for generations. The museum acknowledged that the heirs of Lt. Col. John McCrae were the original owners of the medals currently displayed at the McCrae House museum in Guelph.
Geills McCrae Kilgour, the sister of Lt. Col. John McCrae, placed those medals at a law firm in Winnipeg for safe-keeping. At some point following Geills Kilgour’s death, all of the medals were removed from the law firm. Six of them went to auction in October 1997 in Toronto, and were purchased at the time by Arthur Lee, who, after his purchase, immediately donated the medals to be displayed at the McCrae House museum, preserving an important piece of Canadian history.
A commemorative plaque acknowledging the McCrae family will be added to the display at McCrae House.
McCrae House is the birthplace of Lt. Col. John McCrae. It was restored and opened by the John McCrae Birthplace Society in 1968 and has been owned and operated by Guelph since 1983.
“The legacy of Lt. Col. John McCrae will continue to be celebrated in Guelph, as we look forward to the 100th anniversary of the writing of the famous First World War poem In Flanders Fields, in 2015,” said Mayor Karen Farbridge.
