John McCrae was a Canadian officer, surgeon, and poet who had already served in the South African War and returned to fight in the First World War. He wouldn't see the end of it, dying of illness, but his poem In Flanders Fields transcends national boundaries and resonates today around the world.
This is his service pistol.
An area nearby looks at various items of propaganda. This includes the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-Boat.
Edith Cavell was a British nurse executed by German soldiers in Belgium. It outraged the world. Canadian leaders would later name a mountain in the Rockies for her.
A story went out along the Western Front about a Canadian soldier getting crucified by German soldiers on a barn door. The Germans denied it happened. This is Canada's Golgotha, sculpted by Derwent Wood in 1918.
A porthole, recovered from the Lusitania, is seen here, along with medals and other mementos of the sinking.
William - I have been to the mountain named for Edith Cavell! Such tragic sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteWhat painful stories you are telling today...
ReplyDeleteTragic stories which are but the tip of a huge iceberg; so many more were like my two great uncles, about whose deaths we know very little at all.
ReplyDeleteSad story but it's pretty cool his service pistol still exists.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the poem, for teaching- again.
ReplyDeleteI have those poppies right by my PC. An empty seeds-bag, the poppies grew on our balcony. A pressie from a Perth-friend in 2015 for honoring 100 years Gallipoli..
Tragic story. Can't imagine what the war prisoners went through.
ReplyDeleteBeing executed by firing squad doesn't bear thinking about.
ReplyDeleteKindness of heart lead to such a horrid death.
War turns some humans into such barbarians.
...loss and sacrifice are the sad price of war.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteThe loss from war is just sad. I like the In Flanders Field poem.
Take care, enjoy your day and weekend!
Quite tragic stories todey.
ReplyDeleteThey don’t make them like McCrae any more.
ReplyDeleteWe don't even know the half of it.
ReplyDelete@Angie: I have seen that mountain.
ReplyDelete@Italiafinlandia: very much so.
@John: so many young men died, leaving empty spots at the table.
@Amy: it's a good artifact.
@Iris: poppies are a good legacy.
@Nancy: so much suffering.
@Gemel: it does.
ReplyDelete@Tom: quite true.
@Eileen: I like it too.
@Jan: very much so.
@Marie: they don't.
@David: there are so many other stories out there.
A sobering post, William.
ReplyDeleteI had never seen a photo of McCrae before but his poem is know around the world.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the term "horrors of war. "
ReplyDeleteI heard of McCrae's poem.
ReplyDeleteRoland Leighton, one of that vaunted group of English poets, most of whom were lost in the war wrote this. It says it all for me: "The dugouts have nearly all been blown in, the wire entanglements are a wreck, and in among the chaos of twisted iron and splintered timber and shapeless earth are the fleshless, blackened bones of simple men...Let him who thinks war is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation, invoking honour and praise and valour and love of country...Let him but look at a little pile of sodden grey rags that cover half a skull and a shin-bone and what might have been its ribs, or at this skeleton lying on its side, resting half crouching as it fell, perfect that it is headless, and with the tattered clothing still draped round it; and let him realize how grand and glorious a thing it is to have distilled all youth and joy and life into a fetid heap of hideous putrescence! Who is there who has known and seen who can say that victory is worth the death of even one of these?"
ReplyDelete@RedPat: very much so.
ReplyDelete@Sharon: that it is.
@Red: quite true.
@Bill: most have.
@David: entirely fitting.
I have seen Mt Edith Cavell in Jasper Park. I may eve have a poor photo somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite a mountain.
DeleteLoss and sacrifice over the top in any war ~ Be well ~ hope your back feels better soon ~
ReplyDeleteHappy Weekend to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Oh, my back is fine. It's my mood that isn't.
DeleteI don't remember seeing a photograph of John McCrae before.
ReplyDeleteHis poem is known worldwide isn't it, I know I have included it in my blog posts.
https://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.com/2021/11/remembrance-2021-we-will-remember-them.html
All the best Jan
Thank you.
DeleteHigher instincts in dark places
ReplyDeleteWell said.
DeleteJohn McCrae's poem is one of my alltime favorites. And I remember reading a biography of Edith Cavell in grade school. Little did I know then I would be so fascinated by the two world wars.
ReplyDeleteThese wars do interest me.
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