WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.359 In Flanders fields, the poppies blow. Between 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:07.580 the crosses, row on row. Yeah, it's arguably 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.140 one of the most famous openings to any piece 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.859 of literature in the 20th century. Those lines 00:00:12.859 --> 00:00:15.400 just carry a very specific heavy weight for anyone 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:17.910 who hears them. Absolutely. So welcome to the 00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:21.010 Deep Dive. Today we have a really fascinating 00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:23.829 journey laid out for you. We are looking at a 00:00:23.829 --> 00:00:26.809 comprehensive Wikipedia biography of a man whose 00:00:26.809 --> 00:00:29.329 words you have almost certainly heard, probably 00:00:29.329 --> 00:00:32.350 on a, you know, a crisp November morning while 00:00:32.350 --> 00:00:35.329 pinning a red paper flower to your lapel. Right, 00:00:35.490 --> 00:00:38.549 the remembrance poppy. Exactly. But while you 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:40.450 likely know the poem, you probably don't know 00:00:40.450 --> 00:00:42.829 the incredible and frankly deeply contradictory 00:00:42.829 --> 00:00:45.009 life of the man who actually wrote it, John McCrae. 00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:47.530 The poem itself has become so monumental, so 00:00:47.530 --> 00:00:49.649 ingrained in our global culture of remembrance 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:53.869 that it has almost entirely eclipsed the human 00:00:53.869 --> 00:00:55.950 being holding the pen. Yeah. And when you actually 00:00:55.950 --> 00:00:57.829 look at the source material of his life, you 00:00:57.829 --> 00:00:59.810 realize what a profoundly complex human being 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:02.490 he was. That is exactly our mission for you today. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.560 we are going to look right past the heavy mythology 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.280 of those famous verses to uncover the real John 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.739 McCrae, because we are talking about a man who 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:15.140 was simultaneously a brilliant life -saving healer, 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:18.879 a fiercely dedicated soldier, and a, well... 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:21.799 completely reluctant literary icon. He really 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:23.780 didn't set out to be a famous poet. No, not at 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:26.200 all. OK, let's unpack this, because if you really 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.079 want a shortcut to being well informed about 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:29.840 a historical legend, you have to start at the 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:32.280 beginning, long before the battlefields of Europe. 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:34.859 Right. So we find ourselves in Guelph, Ontario 00:01:34.859 --> 00:01:38.299 in the year 1872. That's when McCrae is born 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:41.140 to Scottish immigrants. And the biography notes 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:43.480 that his father was a veteran of the Fenian raids 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:46.099 and a prominent local figure. Yeah, and right 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:48.420 away we see the first major tension in his life 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:50.599 between his ambition and his physical reality. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.159 But before we get into that tension, I want to 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:56.390 clarify something for you, the listener. Yeah, 00:01:56.530 --> 00:01:59.049 the source mentions the Finian raids in passing, 00:01:59.069 --> 00:02:01.750 but that is a piece of history that usually gets 00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:04.810 glossed over. The Finians were essentially an 00:02:04.810 --> 00:02:07.189 Irish Republican organization based in the United 00:02:07.189 --> 00:02:09.870 States. And in the mid to late 19th century, 00:02:09.889 --> 00:02:12.110 they actually launched armed incursions into 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:15.069 Canadian territory, which sounds wild today. 00:02:15.229 --> 00:02:17.509 Right. They were trying to hold Canada hostage 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:20.069 to force Britain to leave Ireland. So McCrae's 00:02:20.069 --> 00:02:22.069 father wasn't just a guy who liked wearing a 00:02:22.069 --> 00:02:25.229 uniform. He had actively defended his local community. 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:29.060 against literal cross -border invasions. That 00:02:29.060 --> 00:02:33.199 establishes a very real, deeply ingrained military 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:35.960 pedigree in that household from day one. Completely. 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.340 And that context is vital because it sets up 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:41.139 the expectations placed on young John. He was 00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:43.319 incredibly driven. I mean, he was the very first 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:45.479 student from Gulf to win a scholarship to the 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:47.639 University of Toronto. Wow. Yeah. He was a young 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:50.080 man in a hurry, completely dedicated to his studies. 00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:53.689 But his body simply wouldn't cooperate. Our source 00:02:53.689 --> 00:02:56.189 notes that despite this immense drive, he suffered 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:59.949 from severe lifelong asthma. In fact, it was 00:02:59.949 --> 00:03:02.810 so debilitating that he was forced to take an 00:03:02.810 --> 00:03:06.610 entire year off from his university studies just 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:09.330 to recover. I think we really need to pause and 00:03:09.330 --> 00:03:12.150 think about what a year off for asthma meant 00:03:12.150 --> 00:03:15.129 in the 1890s because today, if you have an asthma 00:03:15.129 --> 00:03:17.389 attack, you just reach for a rescue inhaler. 00:03:17.629 --> 00:03:20.360 Exactly. It's manageable. But back then, medical 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:22.560 treatments for respiratory failure were primitive 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:25.800 and honestly often brutal. They didn't have corticosteroids 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.300 treatment, sometimes involved inhaling the fumes 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:31.020 of burning powders, taking heavy sedatives or 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:33.520 or just sitting upright in a chair for days on 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.919 end, fighting for every single breath agonizing 00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:39.439 to be forced out of university for a year meant 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:42.460 he was likely completely incapacitated. This 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.379 wasn't a childhood ailment. He just outgrew this 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:47.639 respiratory vulnerability would haunt him and 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:50.599 actively in his life until the day he died. Yet 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.400 he pushes through. He returns to school, finishes 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:56.500 his BA, and then pivots to medicine. And his 00:03:56.500 --> 00:03:58.580 medical career was nothing short of meteoric. 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.240 To help pay his own medical school tuition, he 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:03.360 actually tutored other students. Right. And there's 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:05.080 a detail in the source that really speaks to 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:08.560 his character. Two of the students he tutored 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:10.879 went on to become among the first female doctors 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.930 in Ontario. See. That is a detail that really 00:04:13.930 --> 00:04:16.569 stands out to me. The 1890s medical establishment 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:19.870 was notoriously hostile to women. For McCray 00:04:19.870 --> 00:04:23.230 to actively tutor female medical students shows 00:04:23.230 --> 00:04:25.709 a level of progressivism and dedication to the 00:04:25.709 --> 00:04:28.569 craft of medicine itself, completely regardless 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:30.930 of the gender politics of the era. He is focused 00:04:30.930 --> 00:04:34.649 purely on excellence. He graduates in 1898. And 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:36.990 from there, his resume reads like a who's who 00:04:36.990 --> 00:04:39.250 of elite medical institutions. Where does he 00:04:39.250 --> 00:04:41.329 go? Well, he works at Toronto General Hospital. 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:44.110 He has down in Maryland to work at the prestigious 00:04:44.110 --> 00:04:46.689 Johns Hopkins Hospital, where his brother Thomas 00:04:46.689 --> 00:04:49.170 was already a professor of medicine. OK. He goes 00:04:49.170 --> 00:04:51.089 to the University of Vermont, where he is appointed 00:04:51.089 --> 00:04:53.730 a professor of pathology. He teaches at McGill 00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:56.480 University in Montreal. He becomes a resident 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.000 pathologist at Montreal General Hospital, then 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.740 moves to the Royal Victoria Hospital. He is everywhere. 00:05:02.060 --> 00:05:04.399 He even crosses the Atlantic to study in England, 00:05:04.779 --> 00:05:06.779 becoming a member of the Royal College of Physicians. 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:10.290 I just, how does someone with a respiratory system 00:05:10.290 --> 00:05:13.350 that actively tries to shut down on him manage 00:05:13.350 --> 00:05:16.790 that kind of relentless, grueling schedule? He 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:19.350 isn't just surviving. He is bouncing between 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:22.149 countries, establishing himself at the absolute 00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:25.069 pinnacle of a Dorian medicine. He even co -authored 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:28.410 a college pathology textbook in 1912. Right. 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:31.670 So you naturally picture a man deeply embedded 00:05:31.670 --> 00:05:34.829 in the dusty world of science, a very stern, 00:05:35.269 --> 00:05:38.060 maybe sepia -toned Which brings us to another 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:40.879 contradiction, because he wasn't that dusty academic 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.620 at all. He was incredibly vibrant. The source 00:05:43.620 --> 00:05:46.620 shares an amazing anecdote from 1910. Oh, the 00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:49.339 canoe trip. Yes. He goes on a canoe trip to Hudson 00:05:49.339 --> 00:05:51.680 Bay, serving as the expedition physician for 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:53.839 Lord Grey, who was the governor general of Canada 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:57.060 at the time. A 3 ,000 mile canoe trip into the 00:05:57.060 --> 00:05:59.519 Canadian wilderness. That is an arduous journey, 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.019 even for a completely healthy person, let alone 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:04.600 someone with severe asthma. And Lord Gray later 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.000 wrote to McCray, marveling at his company. Gray 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:09.420 said, and I quote, I believe the 3 ,000 miles 00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:11.720 of our travels were illumined by as many stories. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.480 I love that quote. It tells you exactly why this 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:18.500 matters. McCray wasn't a somber detached figure 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.430 brooding over life and death. He was a highly 00:06:21.430 --> 00:06:24.889 social, witty storyteller. He was charming, he 00:06:24.889 --> 00:06:27.329 was an adventurer, and he was deeply respected 00:06:27.329 --> 00:06:30.310 as a pillar of society long before the dark clouds 00:06:30.310 --> 00:06:32.970 of war ever gathered over Europe. It's wild to 00:06:32.970 --> 00:06:34.970 think of him telling stories around a campfire 00:06:34.970 --> 00:06:36.810 with the Governor General because there's this 00:06:36.810 --> 00:06:39.730 entirely different, much darker side to McCray 00:06:39.730 --> 00:06:42.610 that was developing at the exact same time, a 00:06:42.610 --> 00:06:45.279 deep -seated obsession with the military. Yeah. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.680 Which runs completely at odds with his oath as 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.600 a doctor to do no harm. And it started remarkably 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:52.720 early. Remember that military pedigree from his 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:54.800 father we talked about? The Fenian Raids guy? 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.160 Right. The source notes his father organized 00:06:57.160 --> 00:07:00.600 and commanded the Gelfield artillery. So at just 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:03.620 14 years old, young John McCrae joins his father's 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:07.220 unit as a bugler. 14. That's practically a child. 00:07:07.259 --> 00:07:08.800 And he wasn't just playing at being a soldier. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:11.019 He won a prize as the best cadet in Ontario. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.019 And it wasn't just parade ground stuff either. 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:16.480 In 1899, he volunteers for active service in 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:19.259 the Second Boer War in South Africa. Now, for 00:07:19.259 --> 00:07:21.279 you listening who might not be familiar, the 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:24.639 Boer War was a brutal, grueling conflict between 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:27.240 the British Empire and the Boer Republics in 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:29.920 southern Africa. Very harsh conditions. Extremely. 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:32.839 It was characterized by guerrilla warfare and 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:35.899 widespread disease. McCray is out there as a 00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:38.740 lieutenant in the Canadian field artillery, fighting 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:40.819 and skirmishes across the Orange Free State in 00:07:40.819 --> 00:07:43.759 the Transvaal. He even earns the Queen's South 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:47.839 Africa medal with three clasps. Those clasps 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:51.040 represent participation in specific major operations 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:54.399 or campaigns. So he was a deeply seasoned combat 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:56.680 veteran before the 20th century had barely even 00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:59.250 started. He eventually rose to the rank of major 00:07:59.250 --> 00:08:01.370 in the artillery before stepping back into the 00:08:01.370 --> 00:08:04.730 reserve in 1904 to focus on that meteoric medical 00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:06.649 career we just discussed. Which brings us to 00:08:06.649 --> 00:08:09.449 the First World War. It's 1914. Britain declares 00:08:09.449 --> 00:08:11.709 war on Germany, which automatically means Canada 00:08:11.709 --> 00:08:13.990 is at war too. Put yourself in those shoes for 00:08:13.990 --> 00:08:17.680 a second. McCray is 41 years old. He has a thriving, 00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:20.660 prestigious medical practice. He has severe asthma. 00:08:21.019 --> 00:08:23.300 He could have easily sat this one out. No one 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:25.300 would have questioned his bravery. He already 00:08:25.300 --> 00:08:28.480 had a medal from South Africa. But he volunteers 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.420 anyway. He does. And he wrote a letter to a friend 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:33.759 explaining why. And the quote from our source 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.019 is just incredibly powerful. He wrote, I'm really 00:08:37.019 --> 00:08:39.919 rather afraid. but more afraid to stay at home 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.580 with my conscience. What's fascinating here is 00:08:42.580 --> 00:08:45.620 the profound sense of duty that single sentence 00:08:45.620 --> 00:08:48.179 reveals. You really have to sit with that. He 00:08:48.179 --> 00:08:51.940 is admitting fear, which is a deeply human rational 00:08:51.940 --> 00:08:55.360 response to industrialized warfare, but his moral 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:58.659 compass, his perceived obligation to his countrymen. 00:08:59.429 --> 00:09:01.789 simply overrides his instinct for self -preservation. 00:09:01.909 --> 00:09:03.750 It's incredible. He was an established middle 00:09:03.750 --> 00:09:06.409 -aged man, yet he felt morally compelled to plunge 00:09:06.409 --> 00:09:08.809 back into the horrors of combat. Now, with a 00:09:08.809 --> 00:09:11.169 medical resume like that, he obviously went straight 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:13.090 into the medical corps, right? I mean, the military 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:15.909 must have seen a brilliant pathologist and immediately 00:09:15.909 --> 00:09:18.330 put him in a hospital. Actually, no. He fought 00:09:18.330 --> 00:09:20.590 to stay with the guns. Yeah, he is appointed 00:09:20.590 --> 00:09:23.210 as medical officer and major of the 1st Brigade, 00:09:23.429 --> 00:09:25.610 Canadian Field Artillery. He wanted to be on 00:09:25.610 --> 00:09:28.370 the front lines with the artillerymen. And a 00:09:28.370 --> 00:09:31.389 year later, in 1915, when he is officially ordered 00:09:31.389 --> 00:09:33.649 to leave the artillery and take command of a 00:09:33.649 --> 00:09:36.929 medical hospital, he is absolutely furious. So 00:09:36.929 --> 00:09:40.350 he vents to his friend, CLC Allenson. He tells 00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:42.289 him exactly what he thinks about being pulled 00:09:42.289 --> 00:09:44.750 away from his beloved guns to go heal people. 00:09:45.610 --> 00:09:48.889 His exact words were, Allenson, all the goddamn 00:09:48.889 --> 00:09:51.129 doctors in the world will not win this bloody 00:09:51.129 --> 00:09:54.669 war. What we need is more and more fighting men. 00:09:54.789 --> 00:09:57.669 It's a jarring quote. To hear the author of a 00:09:57.669 --> 00:09:59.970 poem of such tender mourning speaking with such 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:03.169 aggressive martial frustration really highlights 00:10:03.169 --> 00:10:05.090 the internal conflict of the man. It really does. 00:10:05.149 --> 00:10:06.669 He was one of the greatest medical minds of his 00:10:06.669 --> 00:10:08.830 generation, resentful that he was forced to save 00:10:08.830 --> 00:10:11.149 lives when he felt his duty was to fight. Speaking 00:10:11.149 --> 00:10:13.549 of his internal life, the source does touch briefly 00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:15.570 on his private life, which he kept very guarded. 00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:17.789 He wrote weekly letters to his mother, and he 00:10:17.789 --> 00:10:19.909 did propose to his sister -in -law, Nona Gwyn, 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:23.330 but was refused. Right. And as we look at his 00:10:23.330 --> 00:10:25.610 personal life, our source material mentions a 00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:28.240 modern debate that we should briefly cover. In 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.500 2011, a museum in Ottawa, the Bytown Museum, 00:10:31.700 --> 00:10:34.419 sparked some controversy by questioning his sexuality 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:36.500 and suggesting he might have been gay. And we 00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:38.159 want to be very clear with you, the listener, 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:40.440 that we are just imparting what is in the source 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:42.860 material here. We aren't endorsing any specific 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:44.820 viewpoints or taking sides in this historical 00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:47.480 debate. We are simply reporting on the contents 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:49.980 of the Wikipedia biography. Exactly. To provide 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:52.779 the full context from that source, it neutrally 00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:55.259 notes that the museum's own director of development 00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:58.419 later distanced himself from the Furthermore, 00:10:59.059 --> 00:11:01.620 McCrae biographers and the curator of the McCrae 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:04.559 House state that there is absolutely no historical 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:07.159 evidence that McCrae was gay. So it remains a 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:09.779 point of modern contention, but not one supported 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:12.399 by the primary biographers. Let's shift our focus 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:14.360 back to the battlefields of Europe because this 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:16.820 is where his life reaches its tragic, defining 00:11:16.820 --> 00:11:20.799 crescendo. It is 1915, the Second Battle of Ypres. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:24.360 This is a crucible. The Second Battle of Ypres 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:27.539 is infamous for being the first mass use of poison 00:11:27.539 --> 00:11:30.720 gas on the Western Front. The conditions described 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.639 in the source are visceral. McCray is treating 00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:36.539 the wounded from a hastily dug eight by eight 00:11:36.539 --> 00:11:39.480 foot bunker. Measure that out in your mind. Eight 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:42.519 feet by eight feet. That is the size of a small 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:45.399 walk -in closet. It's tiny. And this bunker is 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:47.720 carved right into the dirt of a dike along the 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.399 Iser Canal, just a couple of miles north of Ypres. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:53.519 This former university professor, this man who 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.659 canoed with the governor general, is now crammed 00:11:55.659 --> 00:11:58.860 into a tiny muddy hole in the earth, desperately 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:01.659 trying to patch up catastrophically broken soldiers 00:12:01.659 --> 00:12:04.620 as the world literally explodes around her. The 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:06.820 conditions must have been horrific. The noise, 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.340 the blood, the sheer terror of it. And remember, 00:12:09.379 --> 00:12:11.759 he is doing this while his own lungs are compromised 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.419 by severe asthma. It was during this relentless 00:12:14.419 --> 00:12:17.720 sensory nightmare that the catalyst for his immortal 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:21.120 poem occurred. A close friend of McCray's and 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.620 a former militia member, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 00:12:23.899 --> 00:12:26.299 was killed in the battle. Helmer was buried in 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:29.000 a makeshift grave, just a simple wooden cross. 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:33.159 And it was the very next day, May 3, 1915, that 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.340 McCray found himself sitting on the back of a 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:37.659 medical field ambulance near an advanced dressing 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:40.620 post at Essex Farm. He was looking out. at the 00:12:40.620 --> 00:12:42.919 spoiled earth of the battlefields and the fresh 00:12:42.919 --> 00:12:45.960 cemeteries of Flanders. The artillery had churned 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.039 up the soil, which actually brings poppy seeds 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:50.960 to the surface and exposes them to light. That's 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.899 fascinating. So despite the utter devastation, 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:56.909 nature was stubbornly asserting itself. Wild, 00:12:57.250 --> 00:12:59.230 blood -red poppies were already beginning to 00:12:59.230 --> 00:13:01.330 bloom in great numbers between the crosses that 00:13:01.330 --> 00:13:03.429 marked the graves. There, on the back of that 00:13:03.429 --> 00:13:05.929 ambulance, processing the raw grief of losing 00:13:05.929 --> 00:13:08.850 his friend, the artillery man, who hated being 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:11.450 a doctor, wrote in Flanders fields. The poem 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:14.149 itself is classified as a Threnody. It's a specific 00:13:14.149 --> 00:13:16.929 genre of lament, a poem of mourning, but what 00:13:16.929 --> 00:13:18.669 makes it so striking is that it's written from 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:20.549 the perspective of the dead themselves. Right. 00:13:20.649 --> 00:13:23.570 We are the dead, short days ago. We lived, felt 00:13:23.570 --> 00:13:27.370 dawn, saw sunset glow. It forces the reader into 00:13:27.370 --> 00:13:30.049 an immediate, unbreakable intimacy with the fallen. 00:13:30.690 --> 00:13:33.230 You aren't just observing their sacrifice. They're 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:36.210 speaking directly to you. The journey of that 00:13:36.210 --> 00:13:38.269 poem into the public consciousness is fascinating. 00:13:38.450 --> 00:13:40.230 It was published anonymously later that year 00:13:40.230 --> 00:13:43.210 in December 1915 in a British magazine called 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:47.179 Punch. And it just exploded. It became swiftly, 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:50.120 wildly popular all over the world. Its impact 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:53.139 was immediate and staggering. It was translated 00:13:53.139 --> 00:13:55.080 into multiple languages. There's even a Latin 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:57.799 version that begins in Agribelgico. It was used 00:13:57.799 --> 00:13:59.600 in countless fundraising campaigns to support 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.419 the war effort. The emotional resonance was universal. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.179 You have to wonder how a private, reserved guy 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:07.899 handles sudden global fame. Yeah. How did he 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:10.289 react? Apparently he was mostly just amused by 00:14:10.289 --> 00:14:12.389 the incompetence of the publishers, because even 00:14:12.389 --> 00:14:14.029 though he was suddenly a household name, they 00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:16.750 misspelled his name as McCree in the magazine's 00:14:16.750 --> 00:14:19.250 index. Oh, that's frustrating. He joked to friends 00:14:19.250 --> 00:14:20.929 that he just wished they would get to printing 00:14:20.929 --> 00:14:23.809 his name correctly. But ultimately, his biographer 00:14:23.809 --> 00:14:26.830 notes, he was satisfied if the poem enabled men 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:29.450 to see where their duty lay. Duty was always 00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:32.809 his North Star. He kept working, even as his 00:14:32.809 --> 00:14:35.159 own health began to fail him drastically. That 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:37.860 brings us to his final years, which sound absolutely 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:41.840 agonizing. From June 1915 onward, he was commanding 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:44.379 No. 3 Canadian General Hospital near Boulogne 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:47.120 -sur -Mer in France. For eight months, this hospital 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.220 operated out of Durbar tents. A Durbar tent is 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.879 a massive ornate canvas structure traditionally 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:56.080 used by Indian royalty for large gatherings or 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.720 courts. The source notes these specific tents 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:01.179 were donated by the Begum of Bhopal, who was 00:15:01.179 --> 00:15:03.399 a female Muslim ruler of a princely state in 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:05.980 India to support the British war effort. It's 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:08.080 a generous donation, but think about the practical 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:10.779 reality of it. These are tents designed for the 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.440 blazing heat of India to allow maximum airflow. 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:16.480 Now they are pitched in the freezing, rainy mud 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.340 of northern France. The medical staff and the 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:21.860 patients suffered through terrible storms, massive 00:15:21.860 --> 00:15:24.539 floods and biting frosts before finally being 00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:27.490 moved into an old Jesuit college. You have to 00:15:27.490 --> 00:15:29.629 imagine what that damp, freezing environment 00:15:29.629 --> 00:15:31.990 was doing to a man who had suffered from severe 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:35.110 asthma his entire life. It was a recipe for disaster. 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:37.730 His immune system was undoubtedly compromised 00:15:37.730 --> 00:15:40.389 by the stress, the environment, and his chronic 00:15:40.389 --> 00:15:43.730 condition. Tragically, his body simply gave out. 00:15:44.049 --> 00:15:47.370 On January 28, 1918, while still commanding the 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.710 hospital, John McCrae died. He was 45 years old. 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:53.000 The source states the cause of death was pneumonia, 00:15:53.480 --> 00:15:56.039 complicated by extensive pneumococcus meningitis. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:58.740 For you listening, pneumococcus meningitis is 00:15:58.740 --> 00:16:00.860 an infection that spreads to the lining of the 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:03.259 brain and spinal cord. Which is brutal. Before 00:16:03.259 --> 00:16:05.700 the invention of modern antibiotics, it was an 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:08.659 agonizing, terrifying way to die. He suffered 00:16:08.659 --> 00:16:10.919 immensely at the end, and he didn't even live 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.220 to see the armistice. He was buried the very 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:15.659 next day in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission 00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:18.259 section of Wimero Cemetery, just up the coast 00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:20.960 from Boulogne. The details of his funeral provided 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.259 in the source are so deeply moving. He was buried 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.360 with full military honors. His coffin was draped 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:30.460 in a flag and borne on a gun carriage. The mourners 00:16:30.460 --> 00:16:32.899 included General Sir Arthur Curry, the commander 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:35.919 of the Canadian Corps, along with many of McCray's 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:38.700 friends and hospital staff. The detail that really 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:41.840 lingers is about his horse, his beloved charger 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.539 named Bonfire, who had been with him all the 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:47.419 way from Quebec. Yeah. Bonfire led the funeral 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:50.110 procession. And in a traditional military symbol 00:16:50.110 --> 00:16:52.870 of fallen cavalry, McCrae's boots were placed 00:16:52.870 --> 00:16:56.029 reversed in the stirrups. The riderless horse 00:16:56.029 --> 00:16:58.269 is one of the most poignant symbols of military 00:16:58.269 --> 00:17:01.250 loss. If you go to Wimero's cemetery today, you'll 00:17:01.250 --> 00:17:03.289 see a unique detail about his resting place. 00:17:03.529 --> 00:17:06.069 His gravestone is placed completely flat on the 00:17:06.069 --> 00:17:07.990 ground. All the stones in that section are flat, 00:17:08.089 --> 00:17:10.349 actually, because the sandy soil near the coast 00:17:10.349 --> 00:17:12.829 is too unstable to hold them upright. If we connect 00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:15.599 this to the bigger picture, The legacy he left 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:18.819 behind is almost unfathomable for a man who died 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:22.259 so relatively young. Beyond the poem, his medical 00:17:22.259 --> 00:17:24.759 contributions are still honored. The Canadian 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.460 Medical Association awards the John McCrae Memorial 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:29.859 Medal to Health Services members of the Canadian 00:17:29.859 --> 00:17:33.160 Armed Forces for exemplary service. He was designated 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:35.279 a person of national historic significance in 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.160 Canada. There are statues of him in Ottawa and 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:40.720 in his hometown of Guelph. There are schools 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:42.819 named after him. There's even a Mount McCrae 00:17:42.819 --> 00:17:45.900 in British Columbia. In Inipres, Belgium, right 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:47.779 near the muddy dike where the history happened, 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:50.720 the Cloth Hall houses a permanent war museum 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:54.059 named the Inflanders Fields Museum. So what does 00:17:54.059 --> 00:17:56.490 this all mean? We started this deep dive looking 00:17:56.490 --> 00:17:59.190 for the man behind the myth. We found a brilliantly 00:17:59.190 --> 00:18:01.750 educated doctor who helped women break into medicine 00:18:01.750 --> 00:18:04.170 when few others would. We found a man who could 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:06.609 charm a governor general on a 3000 mile canoe 00:18:06.609 --> 00:18:09.809 trip. We found a fiercely proud artillery man 00:18:09.809 --> 00:18:12.490 who survived the Boer War and who later hated 00:18:12.490 --> 00:18:14.690 the fact that he was ordered to save lives instead 00:18:14.690 --> 00:18:17.819 of take them. And we found a man sitting on the 00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:20.400 back of an ambulance, exhausted, grieving his 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.039 friend, surrounded by the absolute worst of human 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:25.500 destruction, who somehow noticed the resilient 00:18:25.500 --> 00:18:29.220 beauty of a flower. And in doing so, he permanently 00:18:29.220 --> 00:18:32.099 cemented the red poppy as the universal symbol 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:35.519 of remembrance. It is a staggering legacy, a 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:37.779 complex tapestry of a life. Thank you for walking 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:40.160 through it with us. But before we officially 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.480 sign off, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:18:42.660 --> 00:18:45.259 with one final provocative thought to mull over 00:18:45.259 --> 00:18:49.240 on your own. Our source mentions that... In Flanders 00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:51.440 Fields was printed extensively in the United 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:53.200 States at a time when the U .S. government was 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.480 still just contemplating joining the war, and 00:18:55.480 --> 00:18:58.079 it was often printed alongside a reply poem written 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:01.039 by an American named R .W. Lillard. You see, 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.440 the closing lines of McCray's poem are a challenge 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:06.319 to the living. To you from failing hands, we 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:09.000 throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high. It's 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:11.779 a call to action. Exactly. And Lillard's reply 00:19:11.779 --> 00:19:13.940 poem answered that challenge directly across 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:16.339 the border. He wrote, fear not that you have 00:19:16.339 --> 00:19:18.440 died for naught, the torch ye threw to us we 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:21.259 caught. In our modern era, an era defined by 00:19:21.259 --> 00:19:24.019 constant information overload and sadly ongoing 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:26.400 global conflicts, what does it truly mean for 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:28.640 us, the readers of today, to catch the torch? 00:19:28.740 --> 00:19:30.640 That's the real question. How do we keep faith 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:32.559 with those who have died? Beyond just wearing 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:35.019 a paper poppy once a year, McCray challenged 00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:37.680 his readers not to let the dead sleep in vain. 00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:40.730 How are we answering him today? Thank you so 00:19:40.730 --> 00:19:43.230 much for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:19:43.230 --> 00:19:45.930 extraordinary contradictory life of John McCrae. 00:19:46.210 --> 00:19:47.970 We hope you walk away not just well informed, 00:19:48.109 --> 00:19:50.369 but inspired to look a little closer at the history 00:19:50.369 --> 00:19:52.109 all around us. Until next time.