07/14/2026
Although an accomplished pathologist, John McCrae had a passion for "the guns" since he was a child, undoubtedly engendered by his father who was a gunner and fought in the Fenian Wars along the Canadian border in the 1800s. Lieutenant-Colonel David McCrae actually raised a battery for WWI, the 43rd, and hoped to command it himself. He was refused on a account of being 72!
McCrae junior had been a lieutenant in the Boer/South African War and commanded the right side of D Battery. His close friend Edward Morrison commanded the left side. Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison invited McCrae to join him in the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery in the Great War and eventually went on to command all the Canadian artillery from the end of 1916 to the end of the war.
May 30th, 1915 just after the Battle of Festubert and before actions in nearby Givenchy, John McCrae was ordered to London for new orders.
June 3, 1915 (from his personal war diary)
"Saw Gen.Jones (Canadian Surgeon General Guy Carleton Jones). I now become Lt.Col. in the Can.Army Med. Corps. Here, I'm afraid my diary drops to banality."
McCrae's disdain for the CAMC began in the Boer War because of what he considered the poor state of the army-run hospitals. In a letter home during that war he said of one, "for absolute neglect & and rotten administration it is a model." In another letter to his father he wrote. "I am glad I'm not a med. officer out here: no thank you. No R[oyal]. A[rmy]. M[edical]. C[orps] or any other M.C for me." He eventually got over that attitude in WWI, but it took awhile.
The photo shows Lt.Col. David McCrae at left from Valcartier. Major John McCrae at right is in front of the 1st Bde.CFA Officers Mess, the Bear Hotel in Devizes, Co.Wiltshire, England. They are a mirror image! McCrae Senior's rank should be written as Lt.Col, not Major. My mistake. 2nd photo shows the whole brigade in front of The Bear Hotel in 1914 before shipping out to France.
