John MacCrae - Scott 487 - October 15, 1968
- Ken McGoogan, Harper Collins, First Edition 2010
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In reading Mairiuna’s very moving post “In Flanders Fields…Lest We Forget…“, a question came to my mind: when did John Alexander McCrae’s ancestors emigrated to Canada?
Glancing through the bookshelves of my library, looking for a reference book that could answer this question, I stumbled upon Ken McGoogan’s book “How The Scots Invented Canada“.
Ah ah! maybe I’ll find my answer in here…
The book is divided in three parts:
- The Pioneers
- The Builders
- The Visionaries
Surfing down the table of contents, I get to chapter 14: “Ladies from Hell” where I happily can read the title of a sub-chapter: John Alexander McCrae: In Flanders Fields.
Alleluia! I found something! 🙂
But, why in the world would John McCrae fall inside a category such as “Ladies from Hell” alongside with Guy Laffin, Margaret MacDonald, and Max Aitken ?!?
Let’s read on…
(…) But during the Great War, 600,000 Canadians had served in the military. More than 60,000 had died and 170,000 were wounded, including some who were disfigured or dismembered. Today, those figures look almost surreal.
Black Watch Piper Figurine
Proportionately, given a population of only eight million, Canada made a contribution which exceeded that of virtually any other country.
During that war, members of Canada’s kilted regiments distinguished themselves. They performed so valiantly that they became known as “the ladies from hell“, because that is what the German troops are said to have called them. People also marvelled at the ethnic diversity of these Scottish battalions. Canadians of various heritages, including my Huguenot-descended grandfather, had taken to identifying themselves as warrior Scots.
And why not? Scots had begun forging a military reputation in Canada as early as the 1750s. Three Scottish regiments fought for Britain during the Seven Years’s War that saw the defeat of New France: : the Black Watch, the Montgomery Highlanders, and the Fraser’s Highlanders.
The first two had already distinguished themselves in that war, the Black Watch with a ferocious but futile assault on Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), and the Montgomery Highlanders by capturing Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) . (…) “
Now we know where the expression came from! 😉
Getting back to my initial quest, here’s what Ken McGoogan reveals about the ancestors of John McCrae.
” The paternal grandparents of the doctor-poet, Thomas McCrae and Jean Campbell McCrae, came from Scotland in 1849 and settled in Guelph, Ontario. Their son David married Janet Simpson Eckford, and John (b.1872) was the second of three children.
He grew up staunchly Presbyterian and attended Central Public School and then Guelph Collegiate Institute. While there, he played the bugle in a military regiment commanded by his father, and also began writing poetry.
Photo by Bill Barber - Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wdwbarber/3012604983/
(…) McCrae had remained involved in the military, moving from Guelph militia regiment to the Toronto-based ‘Queen’s Own Rifles’, where he became a captain and commanded the company. He also continued to write – notably some poems inspired by the death of a woman he loved. While at university, he published sixteen poems and several short stories in various magazines, among them Saturday Night. (…) ”
Ken McGoogan | kenmcgoogan.com
As stated by Peter Mansbridge on the back cover of the book, ‘Ken McGoogan is required reading for any Canadian who want to know the real history of our country’. And that’s just what I am going to do…read the whole book. 🙂
When I started researching on the subject of Scottish migrations to Canada, I was amazed to learn how many emigrants has become Canadian nation-builders from coast to coast, and a little book written by James Alexander Roy, ‘The Scot and Canada‘ is a ‘must’ for all Scottish-Canadian readers.
(…) By the time they have reached the second generation they have become more Canadian than Scot, yet they have retained the qualities that make for success, and have given their racial characteristics to Canada more than any group.
In the first half of The Scots and Canada, Professor Roy outlines the conditions which have governed the growth of the Scottish mentality. In the second half he comes down to cases, depicting some of the outstanding Scots associated with British North America, including those who came to Canada by way of Continental Europe and the United States.
He recalls romantic incidents that have been too lightly forgotten, as for instance in the pages dealing with Flora MacDonald which alone makes the book worthwhile.
The account of Lord Selkirk’s Settlements in Prince Edward Island and on the Red River is particularly good. Admirably told, also, is the story of the Scots in Upper Canada. (…)
Happy reading!
Talk soon,
Janice
PS: being myself a Scottish descendant, for my grandmother, on the paternal side, was Elizabeth Mitchelson, born in Berthierville, QC, Canada on January 1, 1888 from Scot descendant Joseph Mitchelson (b. May 1860) and Celanire Pelland Martin (b. March 1863), residents of ville Jacques-Cartier (which since 1969 was renamed “Longueuil” ) , I’m in the works of sketching out the branches to upper levels of ancestry. Wish me luck my friends! 😉
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