Holley

The Biography of John McCrae

By Holley

       "We are the Dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow." This was part of the second stanza that John McCrae wrote in his famous poem called "In Flanders Fields". This young surgeon John McCrae was born November 30^th 1872. He was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario. John used to live a fine life. He was educated in the University of Toronto and in the wonderful year of 1900 he was appointed in pathology (the study of disease) at the McGill University in Montreal. Later on after his studies, John became a physician at the Alexandra hospital and also became the assistant physician at The Royal Victoria hospital in Montreal. When World War l started in 1914, John was transferred to Boulogne No.3 General Hospital as officer in charge of medicine and during the war he would come and visit the scene to attend to the wounded comrades of his. John was very used to war when World War l came because he was in the Boer war in South Africa as the Artillery Subaltern. Sadly, John McCrae kept his position as the officer of medicine until his death. He died of Pneumonia at age 45, on January 28^th 1918 in Boulogne-Sur-Mer France. In my opinion, I think that John McCrae was a successful man in his life. It takes a lot of courage, commitment and love to accept war and die for the happiness of others. I know inside that I would be terrified to leave my family and watch my friends die on the battlefield. Hate is easy, but love takes courage.