Remembrance Day is on the horizon, and this year it is likely to be a special one, as 2014 marks the centennial of the start of World War I. Across Canada, and in Wellington County in particular, there will be numerous recitations of In Flanders Fields, arguably the best known poem written by a Canadian.
As almost everyone knows, that poem was written by Guelph native, John McCrae. His fame rests on that single poem, but McCrae deserves recognition for other aspects of his life, particularly his career in medicine. Earlier this month there was an announcement that McCrae would be named to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame next year.
John McCrae was born in 1872, the son of David McCrae, a prosperous farmer and businessman in Guelph. As a child, John was a rather sickly boy, suffering from asthma. Doctors of that time could do little to alleviate that ailment. His own sickness may well have been a factor that pushed John into the study of medicine.
Despite his asthma, John McCrae joined the volunteer militia in Guelph. On the completion of his studies at the Guelph Collegiate and Vocational Institute, he attended the Royal Military College in Kingston.
He returned home for a year to work as a tutor at the Ontario Agricultural College, teaching English and Mathematics for a year. That would be his last year as a Guelph resident. He then returned to further study, enrolling at the University of Toronto, earning a BA, and graduating with an MD degree in 1898. He earned his way during his studies as a tutor, and achieved distinction as a medical student.
He spent a year as a resident doctor at the Toronto General Hospital, and then went to Baltimore to accept a position at Johns Hopkins Medical School, working closely with his supervisor there, another Canadian, William Osler. John McCrae’s brother, Thomas McCrae, was also on the staff at Johns Hopkins Medical School.
In 1902 Dr. McCrae moved back to Canada and a position at Montreal General Hospital. While there he also had duties at Royal Victoria Hospital and at the McGill Medical School as an occasional instructor. A year later Dr. McCrae opened a private practice in Montreal, while continuing his activities at the Montreal hospitals. In 1904 he spent the best part of a year in England, studying the latest medical practices there, furthering his knowledge and abilities as a pathologist.
His skills as a pathologist were widely recognized in the Montreal medical community. As well, he took part in many social activities in Montreal. McCrae had an engaging and friendly personality. He was something of a social climber, and soon was moving easily among the Montreal academic community and the city’s upper crust. His friends included the Governor General, Lord Grey, and humourist and economist Stephen Leacock. In 1910 he and Lord Grey undertook a canoeing trip together in northern Ontario.
His activities as a doctor and surgeon made McCrae well-known and respected in Montreal. As a diversion from medicine, he enjoyed spending time writing poetry.
Many of his poems derived from things that happened in his on life. The death of a girlfriend from asthma inspired one poem. During these years more than 30 of his poems were published in various periodicals.
In 1912 Dr. John McCrae co-authored a book, A Text Book of Pathology for Students of Medicine. It immediately became a widely used text by medical students. Two years later, a second, revised edition appeared.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, McCrae was appointed a field surgeon with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Initially he was close to the action, serving as a field surgeon. In May of 1915 a close friend was killed in action. That inspired him, on May 3, 1915, to write what would become his best known poem, In Flanders Fields. He sent it to several publications. The magazine Punch accepted it, and it appeared in print in December 1915.
Despite its literary merits, which a number of literary people consider dubious, the poem received widespread acclaim. It was reprinted in the United States, where proponents of the war considered it a recruiting tool. McCrae was delighted with the favourable reception, though he noted that invariably his name was misspelled every time it appeared in print.
Later in 1915, McCrae was removed from the front to set up a hospital for wounded soldiers. He was not happy with the appointment and his removal from the front. “Doctors will not win the war,” he remarked.
Conditions at the hospital were crude at best. It operated from a group of tents. Despite McCrae’s displeasure at his appointment, he worked endlessly and tirelessly. Those who saw him were shocked at the toll the job was taking on his health.
He refused to leave the soldiers struggling for their lives in the tents. As well as his daily duties, he also served as a consulting physician to the British army.
By the end of 1917 McCrae’s childhood asthma caught up with him, imperiling his health.
He contracted meningitis and then pneumonia. The latter claimed his life on Jan. 28, 1918. By then, his name and his poem In Flanders Fields were famous across the English-speaking world.
Many friends and associates braved horrendous conditions to attend the funeral. Most prominent of them was Arthur Currie, soon to be knighted, and the popular head of the Canadian forces in Europe. McCrae was only 45 and the last three years of that life had been dedicated to the military.
By then his famous poem was being recited everywhere. A number of translations appeared, as did an “answer” poem. American band leader John Philip Souza set the poem to music.
Honours to McCrae have continued since his death. Generations of school children committed In Flanders Fields to memory, and it has been recited at countless Remembrance Day ceremonies.
John McCrae was recognized in 1968 with an appearance on a Canadian stamp. Over the years at least a half dozen schools have been named for him. All those honours have been a consequence of his poem, In Flanders Fields.
In some ways it is a shame that a single brief poem has overshadowed the other achievements of his career as a doctor and pathologist. His medical colleagues had a great deal of respect for his abilities, and he contributed to the advancement of treatments for asthma and other respiratory diseases.
That omission will be partially offset by his coming elevation to the Medical Hall of Fame. The nomination was made by the staff of the Guelph Civic Museum, which has jurisdiction over the house that was the birthplace of John McCrae.
Another coming honour will be a statue of McCrae in Guelph. That project has a budget of $300,000.
John McCrae, military officer, medical doctor, and teacher, will not be forgotten by his town or by his country.
He will be remembered as more than the author of a famous poem, but also as a skilled doctor in both peace and war, whose career was cut short far too early.