A closer look at ‘In Flanders Fields’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2024 (377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Note to readers: The Sun has chosen to reprint this story, which first appeared in the newspaper on Dec. 8, 2015, in honour of Remembrance Day on Monday. Please note that Kathleen Christensen is no longer director of the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum at CFB Shilo.

One hundred years ago today, a British weekly humour and satire magazine, Punch, published a poem written by a Canadian officer — Maj. John McCrae. The poem, “In Flanders Fields,” appeared at the bottom of a page beneath a satirical article about Christmas toys for children.

The major’s poem resonated with the masses, becoming one of the most popular poems of the Great War. Snippets of the poem were used in advertising campaigns to raise funds for war bonds and for the British Legion following the war.

To this day, McCrae’s poem is read at ceremonies every Remembrance Day across Canada and throughout the Commonwealth.

The popularity of the Punch poem does not surprise Kathleen Christensen, director of the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum at CFB Shilo.

According to Christensen, Punch had a large readership at the time, being extremely popular with citizens in the Commonwealth. The poem was embraced by enlisted men, particularly those who had survived the carnage of the Second Battle of Ypres, where McCrae is said to have penned his words following the loss of a friend and colleague.

The RCA Museum has on display an original copy of the Punch containing McCrae’s poem. Next to it is another piece of Canadiana — a printing plate with McCrae’s poem in his own handwriting.

This printing plate was donated to the RCA Museum by the family of Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison, who at the outbreak of the war was a lieutenant-colonel in command of the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery.

Following the war, Morrison commissioned the printing plate and used the late McCrae’s words for a fundraiser to support the widows and orphans of soldiers who served in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery (RRCA). At that time there was no poppy campaign in Canada, although Morrison’s initiatives were phased out once the campaign was launched.

On a side note, Brandonites may remember the RCA Museum 1997 building campaign in which 400 copies of the poem were produced from the plate with an antique press borrowed from Leech Printing.

The hand-fed press, manufactured by the Chandler & Price Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was transported to the RCA Museum, where visitors could see the press in action on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. And, yes, Leech Printing still has the press in its shop today.

It turns out that Morrison and McCrae had a long and unique relationship as gunners, which extended back to the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 19th century.

As a youth, McCrae served in the cadet corps and the Canadian militia. While at McGill University, he suspended his medical studies so that he could obtain his commission as a lieutenant in the RCA and serve in South Africa. There he worked alongside Morrison who was a second lieutenant.

After the Boer War, McCrae returned to medicine and Morrison continued his career in the militia and later the Canadian army.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, Morrison used his influence to have McCrae serve under his command. After their time together in the Boer War, Morrison knew the former lieutenant was a good gunner.

While it is widely known that at the time of his death, McCrae was a doctor with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, he technically did not sign on in that capacity. Instead, McCrae served as the second in command to Morrison’s Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.

In order for Morrison to have McCrae serve as his second in command, he had to create an administrative position for him, that of brigade surgeon. This was a position that was not officially on the books.

During the First World War, the Canadian military was woefully unprepared for the number of medical personnel it required to deal with the horrendous number of casualties it was sustaining.

Thus, it came as no surprise that a military decision was made to pull McCrae from the artillery and transfer him to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. There he was promoted to the position of lieutenant-colonel and placed in charge of a Canadian hospital shortly after the Second Battle of Ypres.

This year, Lt.-Col. McCrae’s legacy has been formally recognized upon the centenary of the publication of his poem “In Flanders Fields.” On behalf of the RRCA, the RCA Heritage Campaign worked with the National Capital Commission to erect a statue, designed by Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy, in Ottawa. An identical statue has been erected in Guelph, Ont., McCrae’s hometown.

Closer to home, the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg has produced a number of coins commemorating the 100th anniversary of “In Flanders Fields.” In particular, Brandonites should be on the alert for a commemorative $2 coin that was released into circulation this year. In place of the traditional polar bear, the coin depicts McCrae penning his poem on a battlefield in Flanders, Belgium.

In addition to Morrison’s printing plate at the RCA Museum and the coin from the Royal Canadian Mint, there is a Brandon connection to McCrae. His sister, Geills Marie Christie McCrae, married a promising young lawyer named James Frederick Kilgour in Guelph. In 1906, the couple moved to Brandon, where they lived for 20 years.

It is not known if John McCrae visited his sister in August 1910 when he came to Manitoba as the doctor in Gov. Gen. Earl Grey’s month-long expedition to the Hudson’s Bay.

Early in their residence, the Kilgours lived in a house near Eighth Street and Lorne Avenue, a lovely wood-framed heritage home that is currently for sale. They later moved to a larger home on the corner of 15th Street and Victoria Avenue across the street from the former Victoria Methodist Church, and they resided there until J.F. Kilgour was promoted to the Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg in 1927.

For those who wish to see the iconic piece of Canadian history, Morrison’s printing plate of McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” is on display in the Vimy Section of the RCA Museum.

His words, inscribed in his own hand, continue to touch the heart and remind the reader of the cost of war.

» Suyoko Tsukamoto is a former Brandon-based researcher who spent three seasons in the archeology field at the Camp Hughes National Historic Site.