Statue honours WWI most famous poem, poet.

This past Sunday marked the 100^th anniversary of the writing of one of the most iconic poems of the First World War.

In Flanders Fields was written by Canadian surgeon Lt.Col John McCrae.

During the horrifically bloody second battle of Ypres in 1915, one of McCrae’s, best friends, 22 year old Lt Alexis Helmer was killed along with another young officer Lt Owen Hague when an artillery shell exploded near them.

Shortly after officiating at Lt Helmer’s funeral, McCrae, then a Major, sat and wrote a first draught of the poem “ In Flanders Fields”.

While best known as a leading surgeon, McCrae was also a dedicated artillery officer. To mark the centennial, a larger than life statue of LtCol McCrae had been commissioned by the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. (RRCA)

Two bronze statues have been created by artist Ruth Abernathy. They reprent McCrae shortly after he officiated at Helmer’s funeral when he sat on a broken tree (some reports say it was the back of an ambulance) and penned the poem, which was simultaneously a lament at the loss of life, and a patriotic call to action.

One of the statues was unveiled on Sunday, the anniversary of the writing of the poem, on Green Island at the National Artillery Memorial in Ottawa. The other is to be unveiled in his home town of Guelph Ontario in June at the Civic Museum.

It was also as a result of this poem, that the poppy has become the symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers in several countries.
Weakened by fatigue of long days in surgery, McCrae contracted pneumonia and died on January 28, 1918.