[John McCrae, physician and poet of "In Flanders Fields"]

During the Second Battle at Ypres (1915), the Canadian medical officer John McCrae was situated in an Advanced Dressing Station in Boezinge, Belgium. Heavily influenced by the suffering of the war he wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields" in May 1915. In this poem he writes about the fallen soldiers who will not rest, until others have taken over the torch of the battle. The poem has become particularly well known in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. For army administration, soldiers and their families this poem meant a call for more financial support and material goods to win the war. The poppy, which takes centre stage in the poem, became a worldwide symbol of the sacrifice of soldiers on the battlefield, but more recently has itself become the subject of controversy.