November 11-1918 at 11:00 am, a day to remember…
50th Ann Death John MacCrae issued by Canada Post - October 15, 1968
John McCrae, a canadian physician, grandson of Scottish immigrants, appointed as a field surgeon in the Canadian Artillery during WWI is the author behind the most memorable war poem of his time.
Even though he practised medicine for several years and served in the South African war, Dr John McCrae could never get used to the view of blood, tears and atrocious suffering of people.
During the horrible battle in the Ypres in the spring of 1915, his young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, Ontario, only 22 of age, died under his eyes.
With extreme sorrow, the following day, while observing the wild poppies blossoming and swirling in the wind amongst the killed soldiers, Major McCrae silently wrote…
In Flanders Field-Eilean Donan Castle - Scotiana.com 2001
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)
My friends from Bordeaux at the John McCrae Memorial- Eilean Donan Castle - Scotiana.com - 2001
John McCrae Memorial - Eilean Donan Castle - Scotland - Scotiana.com 2001
The last line We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields might point to the fact that some kinds of poppies can be used to derive opium from, from which morphine can be made. Morphine is one of the strongest painkillers made from poppies and can be used to put a wounded soldier to sleep. Sometimes medical doctors used it in a higher dose to put the incurable wounded out of their misery.
Why does poppies grow in Flanders fields?
Because poppies is the only flower that lives when everything else in the neighbourhood is dead. The poppies seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, and only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots up the ground), the poppies seeds will sprout.
There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before.
http://www.poppies.ws/poppies/in-flanders-fields-the-poppies-blow.html
Eilean Donan Castle - Scotland - John McCrae Memorial -Scotiana.com 2001
Further readings:
In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign, factual history book by Leon Wolff in 1958 on the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Quite a rare find as this book is out of print and can usually be find only in large public or university libraries.
At the end, we can find a passage of Sartor Resartus written by Scottish writer, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) which tries to explain the reasons and causes of such an horrible war as the Great War, if not all wars:
Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle - Ed George Bell & Sons - 1898
…there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumdrudge, usually some five hundred souls.
From these…there are successively selected, during the French War, say thirty able-bodied men: Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and trained them to crafts, so that once can weave, another build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois.
Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red; and shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain; and fed there till wanted.
And now to that same spot in the south of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending: Till at length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand.
Straightway the word “Fire!” is given: and they blow the souls out of one another and in the place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the smallest!… their Governors had fallen out; and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot.
Alas, so it is in Deutschland, and hitherto in all other lands…
MEMORABILIA
2008 Royal Canadian Mint Flower of Rememberance Coin - Scotiana.com
2008 Royal Canadian Mint Flower of Rememberance Coin - Scotiana.com
“Between 1914 and 1918 over 650,000 Canadian men and women fought to protect the peace and freedom our country enjoys today.
Of those, more than 66,000 gave their lives and another 170,000 would be wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer during the First World War, was responsible more than any other for the adoption of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance in Canada and the Commonwealth.
McCrae was also the author of the famous war memorial poem In Flanders Fields.” Source: CoinNews.net
A portion of the poem is printed on the Canadian $10.00 banknote
$10 Canadian Banknote - Verso
Sir John A. Macdonald, depicted on the above banknote was Canada’s first prime minister and held office from 1867 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1891. He was born on 11 January 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland, and died on 6 June 1891.
and last, but not least…
Canada's First Ever Lenticular (Motion) stamps
The lines: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high” have been adopted as the motto of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team.
We remember…
Governor-General-Foot-Guard-Member-Shows-25-Cent-Poppy-Coin
Talk soon.
Janice
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