John McCrae was a Canadian physician, soldier, and poet who wrote the famous World War I poem, "In Flanders Fields".

The poem was inspired by the death of a friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who had been killed at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.

Its powerful imagery of poppies growing over the graves of fallen soldiers helped establish the red poppy as a global symbol of remembrance.

McCrae died in 1918 from pneumonia while serving in the war. 

In Flanders Fields

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.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw

 The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— John McCrae