Remembrance Day

Posted on

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day

Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

 

 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS POEM

The World’s Most Famous WAR MEMORIAL POEM By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

 

On May 2, 1915, John McCrae’s close friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell. That evening, in the absence of a Chaplain, John McCrae recited from memory a few passages from the Church of England’s “Order of the Burial of the Dead”. For security reasons, Helmer’s burial in Essex Farm Cemetery was performed in complete darkness.

The next day, May 3, 1915, Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson was delivering mail. McCrae was sitting at the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the YserCanal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, Belgium.

As John McCrae was writing In Flanders Fields poem, Allinson silently watched and later recalled, “His face was very tired but calm as he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."

Within moments, John McCrae had completed the “In Flanders Fields” poem and when he was done, without a word, McCrae took his mail and handed the poem to Allinson.

Allinson was deeply moved:

“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

 

From the Web Site In Flanders Fields

Owner of FreeBird Safety Services. An Occupational Health and Safety company Specialising in Construction. Founded in September 2011. OH&S Professional, Occupational First Aid level III

With Over 30 years experience in General Construction including Single Family Residential Construction, Multi Family Residential Construction, Commercial, Industrial and Infrastructure Construction.

Personal Fall Protection Instructor since June 2016, with hundreds of workers having taken the 8-hour full day training program I Designed and Developed as per the WorkSafe BC OHS Regulation Part 11: Fall Protection

Respirator Fit Tester since Jan. 2013, with upwards of 10,000 workers protected. Over 3000 essential services workers alone during Covid-19. All under the WorkSafe BC OHS Regulation Part 8.32 to 8.45 and the CSA Standards Z94.4-02

One Comment

  1. Pingback: Blogging About Construction Safety, Accidents, WCB Act of BC, Events

Comments are closed.