The years after the war were busy ones for the young doctor. The young doctor Montreal General Hospitalīack in Montréal in 1901, John McCrae picked up the thread of his life, resuming his studies in pathology. He was not involved with the military again until 1914. John McCrae resigned from the 1 st Brigade of Artillery in 1904 after being promoted to Captain and then Major. He was still convinced of the need to fight for one's country but shocked by the poor treatment of the sick and injured soldiers. When he left South Africa, it was with mixed feelings about war. John McCrae sailed to Africa in December and spent a year there with his unit. This Guelph contingent became part of D Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. He was subsequently commissioned to lead an artillery battery from his home town. In order to serve in South Africa, he requested postponement of a fellowship in pathology that he had been awarded at McGill University in Montréal. When the South African War started in October 1899, John McCrae felt it was his duty to fight. William Osler, the pre-eminent medical educator of his time. There, both John and Thomas McCrae became close associates of Dr. In 1899, he went to Baltimore and interned at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where his brother Thomas had worked as assistant resident since 1895. He worked as resident house officer at Toronto General Hospital from 1898 to 1899. In 1898, John McCrae received a Bachelor of Medicine degree and the gold medal from the University of Toronto medical school. At university, he was a member of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada of which he became company captain. He also continued his connection with the military, becoming a gunner with the Number 2 Battery in Guelph in 1890, Quarter-Master Sergeant in 1891, Second Lieutenant in 1893 and Lieutenant in 1896. At university, he had 16 poems and several short stories published in a variety of magazines, including Saturday Night. While training as a doctor, he was also perfecting his skills as a poet. Two of his students were among the first women doctors in Ontario. While in medical school, he tutored other students to help pay his tuition. (Prescott, In Flanders Fields: The Story of John McCrae, p. It seems as it were a gift of Providence that the little creature should attach itself to the child who needs is most. Tonight I saw the kitten curled up under the bedclothes. It stays with him all the time, and sleeps most of the day in his straw hat. He wrote an essay about his young patients and frequently described the children in his correspondence.Ī kitten has taken up with a poor (child) dying of muscular atrophy who cannot move. He spent the summer of his third year as resident physician at the Garrett Hospital in Mount Airy outside Baltimore, a summer convalescent home for sick children. He then attended the University of Toronto medical school. He returned to his studies in Toronto in 1893 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894. John McCrae expressed the pain of this loss through his poetry which even then dwelt on the theme of death. It is reported that he also fell in love with a friend's eighteen year-old sister, but he was dealt a bitter blow when the young woman died shortly after they met. This illness recurred throughout his life.ĭuring this year off, he was assistant resident master at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, teaching English and Mathematics. After attending university for three years, however, he was forced to take a year off due to severe asthma. John McCrae graduated from Guelph Collegiate at 16 and was the first Guelph student to win a scholarship to the University of Toronto. He joined the Highfield Cadet Corps at 14 and at 17 enlisted in the Militia field battery commanded by his father. As a young boy, he was also interested in the military. John McCrae began writing poetry while a student at the Guelph Collegiate Institute.
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