John McCrae
By Jocelyn
The red vivid flowers have become a symbol of the loss of the soldiers of the First World War. John McCrae was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and a soldier during WW1. He trained as a doctor during the war and wrote short stories and poems during his spare moments.
The flowers weren't planted but naturally started blooming during the spring of the War. In the fields of Belgium, in the town of Waregum, the poppies started to bloom after the burial of fallen soldiers.
John McCrae wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields" because it was a poem about the realities of World War I. It was written in the trenches of Belgium. John McCrae was inspired to write the poem on May 3, 1915 after the funeral of a friend who died during the Second Battle of Ypres.