Flanders Fields were first published on this date
12/8/2008 at 1:39 PM
December 8, 1915 - John McCrae's “In Flanders’ Fields” is first published in the British magazine ‘Punch’.
There are 3 connections between John McCrae and Manitoba.
First: James F. Kilgour, a young Guelph ON lawyer moved to Brandon in 1901 to be part of Clifford Sifton’s law firm.
In 1905 he returned home briefly to marry Mary Christie Geills McCrae, the sister of John McCrae.
She moved to Brandon and over the course of two decades there raised four children.
In 1927 Kilgour was appointed to the bench their family moved to Winnipeg for the remainder of their years.
Second: in 1910, Governor General Lord Grey made a canoe trip from Lake Winnipeg to Hudson's Bay and John McCrae was the expedition doctor.
Third: the original Punch printing plate for In Flanders Fields is located in the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum in Shilo, Manitoba.
A couple of political footnotes: Geills McCrae Kilgour “Jill” Turner, a grand daughter to Geills and James, is the wife of former PM John Turner. David Kilgour, long time Edmonton MP, is also a grandchild of the couple.
Source: This was Winnipeg at
http://thiswaswinnipeg.blogspot.com/