The Prince of “In Flanders Fields”
STORY BY PAIGE GILMAR
“His girl’s picture had a hole right through it—and we buried it with him… A soldier’s death!” wrote the great poet-surgeon John McCrae.
McCrae, also a major and second in command of the 1st Canadian Brigade during the First World War, would go on to write “In Flanders Fields,” a poem that transfixed a nation and transformed the poppy into a symbol of remembrance.
While many forget McCrae’s lifelong excellence as a clinician and veteran, even less is known about the soldier whose funeral inspired his iconic poem. That solider was Alexis Hannum Helmer, a 22-year-old lieutenant of the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, who died on May 2, 1915.
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Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 