Cemetery: Wimereux Communal Cemetery

Country: France

Area: Pas De Calais

Rank: Lieutenant Colonel

Force: Army

Official Number:

Unit: Canadian Army Medical Corps

Country of Service: Canadian

Details: 28th January 1918 Age 45 Son of Col David McCrae and Janet Simpson Eckford McCrae of Guelph Ontario John McCrae was a Canadian doctor who started to write verse at McGill University He went to Europe in 1914 as a gunner but transferred to the Medical Service His poem 'In Flanders Fields' first appeared in Punch during December 1915 and became the most famous poem of the War It was written during the second Battle of Ypres In January 1918 McCrae was appointed consultant to all the British Armies in France but he died of pneumonia before he could take up the post A book of his poems was published in 1919 McCrae also wrote a book on pathology IV H 3

Photograph by David Milborrow