Poem - In Flanders Fields

Name/Title

Poem - In Flanders Fields

Entry/Object ID

2018x.30.05

Scope and Content

A card with a printed rendition of the poem "In Flanders Fields", a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918) died of pneumonia near the end of the war.

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

McCrae, John

Research Notes

Notes

Lieut-Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Army Medical Corps, was born on November 30, 1872. A Canadian doctor and teacher and poet who served in World War I, he is best known for his memorial poem “In Flanders Fields.” He died on January 28, 1918.