McCrae House National Historic Site of Canada, Guelph, Ontario
Posted by: 
colincan
N 43° 32.169 W 080° 14.688
17T E 561017 N 4820633
John McCrae is known throughout the English-speaking world for his poem "In Flanders Fields" which captures the emotion of death during World War One. The enduring symbolism of the poppy stems from his work. He was born in this house.
Waymark Code: WM63DM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 03/26/2009
Views: 19
John McCrae (1872-1918) has a similar life story to several other prominent Canadian physicians to the extent that they were educated at the University of Toronto as doctors, they fought in World War One and they died prematurely in military circumstances. Sir Frederick Banting and Norman Bethune would fit these criteria. McCrae is known as a doctor and soldier but perhaps poet most of all. In Montreal he worked in hospitals and had a bustling private medical practice. He enlisted in the Queens Own Rifles of Canada and fought for a year in the Boer War. Already in his forties when the First World War, the war to end all wars, broke out, McCrae felt compelled to enlist for a second time. He was posted to the front at Ypres, Belgium, where fighting was heavy and there as a Lieutenant-Colonel he was placed in charge of a Canadian hospital. The battlefront inspired him to write "In Flanders Fields" which was published in Punch magazine and subsequently it and the poppy became icons of the war. He is buried in a cemetery in Wimereux, France. This house, his birthplace, was built circa 1855 and designated of national significance in 1966. It is owned by the City of Guelph.
Credit: Brochure "Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae" distributed at McCrae House, Guelph Museums.
Classification: National Historic Site
Province or Territory: Ontario
Location - City name/Town name: Guelph
Link to Parks Canada entry (must be on www.pc.gc.ca): [Web Link]
Link to HistoricPlaces.ca: Not listed
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