In Flanders Fields and Nova Scotia Connections
In the weeks leading up to the celebration of Remembrance Day every November 11th, red poppies are worn by millions as a way to remember the Great War and the brave soldiers who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. Lt. Col. Dr. John McCrae was a physician with the Canadian army in WWI from 1914-1918 and is remembered throughout the world as the author of In Flanders Fields and its celebration of the poppies growing row on row beside graves of the fallen. Dr McCrae is among them.
He died of pneumonia, in hospital, just days before the end of the war and is buried in the Wimereux cemetery, N.W. France near the Flanders region of Belgium. Dr. McCrae was from Guelph, Ontario. His home in Guelph is now a great museum that is well worth a visit.
Matron of the hospital where Dr. McCrae died was Katherine MacLatchy R.R.C.(Royal Red Cross nurse) of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. She lived well into her 90’s and is buried to the left of the front door of the old Covenanters Church, Grand Pre, along with other members of the MacLatchy family. Professor Cy MacLatchy, retired Acadia University, lives in Wolfville and is a living relative of nurse Katherine.
Today Clan Gregor Society is pleased and proud to share that Canada Chapter member Major Trevor MacGregor Jain, MD (pictured to the right in a Chinook) is receiving the Canadian Medical Association’s 2021 John McCrae Memorial Medal in recognition of his exemplary service as a clinical health service member of the Canadian Armed Forces. He has served as a medical director in multiple war zones, such as Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq, but it was a disaster right at home, off the coast of Nova Scotia, that shaped Major Trevor Jain’s military and medical career. Born in Coldbrook Nova Scotia, Major Dr. Jain is a graduate of Acadia University.
These are the connections to Flanders Fields, and the counties of Guelph and Kings, Nova Scotia.
Information submitted by June MacGregor Jain
For more visit the Canadian Medical Association site at
https://www.cma.ca/john-mccrae-memorial-medal-2021-recipient-major-trevor-jain-md