A presentation Sunday on the life and times of Lt. Col. John McCrae will give the audience a look at the Guelph-born physician, soldier and poet that is much deeper than just the poem he is famous for.
Author Hugh Brewster will act as storyteller on Sunday as he leads an immersive musical and multimedia tribute called John McCrae: His Life in Words, Images and Song at the River Run Centre.
Sunday is the one hundredth anniversary of McCrae's death.
Brewster grew up around the corner from McCrae’s childhood home and learned much about him after years of researching World War I history, but said he was surprised by how much more he learned about McCrae in researching for Sunday’s show.
McCrae’s life paints a picture of the Guelph around the turn of the Twentieth Century, said Brewster.
“Reading his other poems and his diaries and letters — a very compelling picture of a person of that era emerges,” said Brewster.
Guelph very much thought of itself as part of the British Empire in the post-Victorian, Edwardian era in which McCrae lived.
That began to change, said Brewster, as Canadians were sent to fight in the Second Boer War and especially The Great War, now known as World War I.
“It was that watershed era because it was through the wars that Canadians began to develop a separate identity as a country and to think of ourselves not just part of the Empire but a country in our own right,” said Brewster.
Social change also came about in that era, said Brewster, notably voting rights for women.
“During the war, nurses showed what they can do. You can’t very well refuse them the vote after they have died of diphtheria nursing wounded men,” said Brewster.
Most Canadians know McCrae died in World War I, but fewer are aware he also served decades earlier in the Second Boer War, which was fought in present-day South Africa.
“It was hugely important. It was Canada’s first war as a country,” said Brewster of the Second Boer War. “I think many people will find that interesting because many people don’t know much about it.”
Accompanying Brewster on stage will be the Elora Singers, who will perform relevant songs from the era, many of which are no longer performed and almost lost to history.
Brewster has been collaborating with the Elora Singers on a range of projects for more than 10 years.
Images and video accompany the presentation. Despite the fact he died a century ago, there is a surprising amount of photographs from McCrae’s life.
“His life is well documented, which is a help. There is a good visual record of his life,” said Brewster.
Letters, poems and sketches from McCrae are also included in the tribute. Many of them were created on the battlefield.
“He was both a gunnery officer and a surgeon, so he is actually fighting and then pulling wounded men out of pools of blood in the trenches and tending to them. So he was doing that and writing poems and making sketches,” said Brewster.
The Canada of the turn of the Twentieth Century has been a constant theme for Brewster and he has written a number of books on both the Titanic and World War I.
Brewster said he is often surprised when people bring artifacts, like war medals, to events he is speaking at, but notes that these 100-year-old events are a part of a living history to the descendents of the people who lived it.
“People have connections to World War One. It’s not that long ago — it’s close to a lot of people,” said Brewster.
Although he died at age 45 and single with no family of his own, McCrae crossed paths with a veritable who’s who of Canadiana, from Governor General Earl Grey, after which the Grey Cup is named, to famed Canadian authors Lucy Maud Montgomery and Stephen Leacock.
McCrae’s sister, Geills, is grandmother to Geills Turner — wife of former Prime Minister John Turner.
Brewster said the Turners are expected to be in attendance for Sunday’s show.
Sunday's tribute will be held at 3 p.m. at the River Run Centre. Tickets are $25.
Earlier in the day, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church will hold a special service eulogizing McCrae on the anniversary of his death.
The images and songs featured in the tribute build up to McCrae’s writing of In Flanders Fields, which Brewster calls ‘the most memorized poem in Canada’.
“That one poem, written after one of his friends is blown to pieces, has lived for over 100 years and is still very compelling. There’s something about it we find gripping,” said Brewster.
