The poem, “In Flanders Field”, was written by a very famous man named John McRae. He was inspired to write the poem on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of one of his friends and fellow soldier, Alexis Helmer, who unfortunately died in the Second Battle of Ypres. John was a Canadian physician, soldier, teacher, and poet. John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario on November 30, 1872. John was the second son of Scottish immigrants Lieutenant Colonel David McCrae and Janet Simpson Eckford McCrae.

John performed a burial service for his good friend and former student, Alexis Helmer. The next day on May 3, 1915.The poem was written as he sat upon the back of a medical field ambulance near an advance dressing post at Essex Farm, just