Essex Farm Cemetery

John Mc Crae Site
Essex Farm Cemetery and the bunkers right next to it, where John McCrae wrote his famous poem "In Flanders Fields," are among the best-known spots in the entire Ypres Salient. The memorial monument of the 49th (West-Riding) Division on the adjacent canal bank is much less visited. The fact that the entire canal bank was one of the impressive 'entrenchments' of the French military architect Vauban, and was used again in WW1, is not (or no longer) known.

John McCrae was 41 years old when World War I broke out. He had served in the army until 1904, where he received training in artillery and eventually rose to the rank of major in the artillery. For the next ten years, he dedicated himself to his medical career in civilian life and to teaching younger doctors.

On September 9, 1914, following the outbreak of war, John McCrae returned to active service. He joined the 1st Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery. Due to his age and lack of recent artillery experience, he was appointed brigade surgeon with the rank of major, making him second in command in the brigade.

In the beginning, McCrae and his unit were involved in the stagnant trench warfare. The first casualties were not severely wounded. McCrae led the care of these casualties and occasionally commanded the gunners.

On April 17, 1915, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. On April 22, following the German chlorine gas attack, his unit was called to action. He set up a first aid post on the western bank of the canal. The intensity of the fighting and the large number of casualties were conditions he had never experienced before. When he was not commanding the cannons, he tried to cope with the constant stream of injured individuals needing his attention. In a letter to his mother, John described his dressing station: "I had a square space, 8 by 9, dug into the slope, covered with rags to keep the rain out, and a small sandbag at the back to prevent shrapnel from coming in. Some straw on the floor completed the whole. Every place along the bank was more or less the same, all squirrel holes." It should be noted that the current concrete shelters are of a later date.
Doctors like McCrae often worked for hours on end. The floor of their dressing station was often slippery with mud, and the earth crept in between the boards that reinforced the walls. Wounds had to be dressed in the dim light of candles or kerosene lamps. Dressings could not be kept clean under such circumstances, and there was often a shortage of medical supplies.

On Sunday, May 2, a good friend of McCrae, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed by a shell. A few men went to dig a grave in the cemetery when the firing stopped. Meanwhile, others gathered as many remains as possible. They placed them in sandbags, laid them on a military blanket, which was then pinned shut with large safety pins. During the burial in the darkness, a deeply moved McCrae recited some prayers.
Orderly officer Allison claims he personally saw McCrae writing his poem the next day while sitting on the tailboard of an ambulance, staring at Helmer's grave.

On May 9, the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery was withdrawn from the line. John McCrae could now reflect on the war as both a soldier and a medical officer. In June, he received orders to leave the artillery and join the Canadian Army Medical Corps. In fact, he preferred to stay with the artillery, but his sense of duty prevailed, and he became a good medical officer.

On January 28, 1918, McCrae died of pneumonia and meningitis. He was buried with full military honors in Wimereux.

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