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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Join the Branch 25 of the Royal Canadian Legion (representing the San Francisco Bay Area) for their annual Memorial Day Service, supported by our U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps (USNSCC) – Arkansas Division. The service will take place at the Royal Canadian Legion plot in the Greenlawn Memorial Park on 1100 El Camino Real in Colma at 11am on Saturday, 27 May.
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Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 