Disarmament
One
spake
amid
the
nations,
"Let
us
cease
From
darkening
with
strife
the
fair
World's
light,
We
who
are
great
in
war
be
great
in
peace.
No
longer
let
us
plead
the
cause
by
might."
But
from
a
million
British
graves
took
birth
A
silent
voice
—
the
million
spake
as
one
—
"If
ye
have
righted
all
the
wrongs
of
earth
Lay
by
the
sword!
Its
work
and
ours
is
done."
John McCrae
John McCrae born in Guelph, Ontario, Canadian poet, soldier, and physician John McCrae earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Toronto, where he received the Gold Medal. McCrae’s well-known poem “In Flanders Fields” memorializes the April 1915 battle in Belgium’s Ypres salient. For 17 days, McCrae tended those injured in the battle. January 28, 1918, at the age of 45. McCrae was buried with full military honors in Wimereux Cemetery near Boulogne, France. His family home in Guelph is preserved as a museum, and the main street in Wimereux is now named Rue McCrae.