In Flanders Fields
Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote this poem on 3rd May 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend and student, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. The verses swiftly became one of the most popular poems of the war after first appearing in Punch, and were used in many fund-raising campaigns.
On 28th January 1918, while still commanding a Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, McCrae died of pneumonia. He was buried with full honours in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of Wimereux Cemetery, just a couple of kilometres up the coast from Boulogne. McCrae's horse, Bonfire, led the march, his master's riding boots reversed in the stirrups.
