Celebrating John McCrae and In Flanders Fields

We recently held global workshops that brought together online some 12,000 Canadian and UK school children.  We invited them, through words and art, to Remember Together the legacy of John McCrae, the Canadian author of Flanders Fields, and in follow up we received hundreds of poems and art works.  A funding collaboration between three Canada-UK charities – The Maple Leaf Trust, Canada Memorial Foundation and Canada-UK Foundation – made the workshops financially possible.  The community interest business agency, Big Ideas, brought the workshops to life with their creativity and digital savvy.  The events brought young people together to mark the 150th anniversary of John McCrae’s birth. They learned his story and the stories behind his famous poem In Flanders Fields which led to the poppy becoming the most recognised flower of remembrance and symbol of commemoration. The events were active classroom activities taking place during the session, including writing in response to In Flanders Fields and designing poppies

Following the event, the charities again teamed up, this time with many external supporters including the DCMS, FCDO, CWGC, and the Premier Leagues, for a large scale social media campaign featuring poems and artworks we received from the schools.  We were honoured that both the British and Canadian High Commissioners read poems, as did John McRae’s descendant, Winnipeg business leader Cameron Kilgour.  We discovered Cameron through CBC coverage and were delighted by how supportive he was to our efforts.  He in turn said his family was greatly honoured by our Remember Together John McCrae efforts. 

On the face of it, the young people, Canadians and UK alike, were learning about the symbolism of the poppy and Canada’s role with the UK in war time.   Underneath this though, we are sowing the seeds of global citizenship and peace….and, as we have for 50 years, using education to as a soft power tool to drive change. 

Working together with like-minded collaborators and with the help of our supporters, our suite of education programmes and tools run the full range from young school children through youth, and from graduate and post graduate students to doctoral and post-doctoral pursuits.  We also support academics with publication and travel awards-- all designed to promote Canada in the UK education.