who is lieutenant colonel john mccrae?

John McCrae was a Canadian physician, poet, and army officer who lived from 1872 to 1918. He is best remembered for writing the World War I-era poem In Flanders Fields, inspired by the Second Battle of Ypres where he served as a medical officer with the Canadian Field Artillery. McCrae held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Army and served in the Boer War and World War I, combining medical duties with battlefield leadership. He was born in Guelph, Ontario, and studied medicine at the University of Toronto before embarking on a career that spanned military service, medical practice, and poetry.