Date Published 11 November 2021
In 1915 Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote ‘In Flanders Fields' after losing a friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, in Ypres, Belgium during the First World War.
McCrae wrote the poem the day after burying Helmer when he could see vivid red poppies spring up among the graves of the burial ground.
McCrae died of pneumonia on the battlefield in January 1918 and is buried at Wimereux Cemetery, France.
'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.'
Lest We Forget ~ We Will Remember Them
