The poppy is the flower of remembrance in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, other commonwealth countries and the US.
Canadian LT/COL John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ont., in 1872, McCrae began writing poetry at a young age. He was also interested in the military from an early age, and joined the Highfield Cadet Corps at 14.
He received his medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1898, and about a year later went to fight alongside British and Australian troops in the Boer War in South Africa. He left the military in 1904 and focused on his private practice, while also working as a university lecturer.
When the Great War broke out in 1914, McCrae like most British Commonwealth nations immediately joined the war effort. He was first stationed in Ypres, Belgium, in an area traditionally known as Flanders where he operated a MASH field hospital, then later transferred to the No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in France where he was chief of medical services.
In 1918 McCrae fell ill, and died of pneumonia and meningitis. On the day he fell ill, he learned he had been made consulting physician to the First British Army—the first Canadian to be appointed this role.
He was buried with full military honours in Wimereux Cemetery not far from the fields of Flanders. His beloved horse Bonfire led the funeral procession, with McCrae’s riding boots stirrups reversed.
