John McCrae

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was an eminent physician and pathologist at McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital who volunteered for active overseas military service during World War I with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Serving as a brigade surgeon during the horrific Second Battle of Ypres in May 1915, McCrae worked relentlessly under shellfire in a primitive dugout.

Deeply moved following the death of his close friend Alexis Helmer, McCrae penned "In Flanders Fields" while seated on the back of an ambulance, watching poppies blow amid the crosses. Published in Punch, the poem inspired the international adoption of the red poppy as the universal emblem of remembrance.