Inspiration for In Flanders Fields
Was Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer the inspiration for John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields? What happened at his battlefield grave, and why was it later lost? CEFRG seeks to answer these questions, after Helmer’s rather short wartime military service.
Service of Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer
Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer born 29 June 1892 in Hull, Quebec, Canada, the son of Lt Col Richard Alexis Helmer and Elizabeth Isabela Helmer, of 122 Gilmour Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
He attended Ottawa Collegiate Institute, a high school in Ottawa, Ontario, and later graduated as an engineer.
In January 1913, Lieutenant Helmer (R.M.C.), 2nd Battery Canadian Field Artillery appointed Captain of A Company in McGill University’s first-ever contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps. Helmer’s graduation entry in the Old McGill 1914 yearbook mentions his captaincy and his membership in the Tennis Club.
Having earned his Bachelor of Science degree, with Railway Transportation listed as his major fieid, Helmer worked as an assistant agent for the Canadian Pacific Railway in his former hometown of Hull, Quebec. The summer of 1914 also brought him and the 8th Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery to a training camp in Petawawa, Ontario. Helmer having been permitted to relinquish his rank of captain of the McGill University contingent, promoted Lieutenant by the end of June.
Attestation
Helmer only twenty two years, 3 months of age, standing 5′ 7″ tall, 135 pounds with fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. Alexis enlisted 27 August 1914 in the 2nd Field Battery, Canadian Field Artillery.
As part of the first brigade, under the command of South African War hero Lt-Col Edward W B Morrison, Helmer in the company of his former class-mate, Lt Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, adjutant, and Major John McCrae, medical officer.
Embarked at Avonmouth 8 February 1915 for France. Disembarked at Dieppe with billets later in Cassel. On 17 April 1915, Helmer enters Belgium at Breilen, less than a week before the Second Battle of Ypres.
2 May 1918, The Death of Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer
John McCrae wrote about the death of his friend, Lt Alexis Helmer on the day of his burial. Common in McCrae’s letters and journal entries for him to redact names and places. A commanding officer always showing a level of respect for the Censors. At times, John even appealed to the Censors directly in his text. Never asking for an exception, but rather to correct him, and forgive him for his tiredness.
Lieutenant Hague
The following circumstances of his death compiled from letters received by Lieutenant Owen Carsley Frederic Hague‘s father, Frederic Hague from officers in the area at the time.
Early on Sunday morning, May 2, 1915 Lieutenants’ Hague and Helmer left their position to check on a Canadian Battery who had positioned themselves on the bank of the Yser Canal near St. Julien close to the France-Belgium border. They had only gone a few yards when a six inch, high explosive canon shell burst. Lieutenant Helmer killed instantly.
Lt Hague mortally wounded in the arm and leg, and later died of wounds, 2 May 1915. Since not killed instantly like Helmer, expect Hague to be buried elsewhere. Helmer in a battlefield grave, and Hague in a casualty cemetery to the rear.
Heavy gunfire again this morning. Lieutenant Helmer was killed. . .His diary’s last words were – ‘It has quieted a little and I shall try to get a good sleep!’ His girl’s picture had a hole right through it-and we buried it with him. I said the Committal service over him, as well as I could from memory. A soldier’s death!
Captain Lawrence Cosgrave
Muriel Robertson
Muriel Robertson later posted as a VAD overseas from April l5 until November 3, 1918. Muriel’s armband in photographs identified her as an Order of St. John VAD nurse.
Lieutenant Bick
Lieut Helmer had just finished the operation of digging in [for observing] when a solitary ‘Jack Johnson’ shell fell almost at his feet and exploded. He was literally blown to pieces. A lieutenant from Montreal was standing some few yards away and had a leg and hand blown off, but lived.
Lt Bick
Bick unaware the Lt Hague later died of his wounds.
Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson
The death and burial of Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer later described by Bombardier Cyrl L C Allinson 40051. Allinson serving under Lieutenant L Moore Cosgrave in the 1st Field Battery Battery. Gunner Francis Patrick Walshe serving under Lt Helmer in the 2nd Battery. Gunner F P Walshe likely not at the funeral for Helmer. Although, perhaps this occasion, or many others, what eventually inspired Sergeant Walshe to own and operate a funeral home during his later years in Alberta, Canada
The origins of In Flanders Fields also confirmed by Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson 40051, serving with McCrae, and the author’s great-uncle, Sergeant Francis Patrick Walshe during the Second Battle of Ypres.
On the afternoon of Sunday May the 2nd, the 2nd Battery is being strafed heavily. Lieutenant Alex Helmer had left his bunk. En route, an eight inch lands on him, blowing him to pieces. As soon as the strafing stops, a couple of his men go to the burying ground and dig the grave. The others go around the area, picking up as many of the pieces as they can find to put into sand bags, which are then laid into an army blanket in the form of a body.
A small group gathered together and John McCrae recites part of the burial service, which we all are familiar with: “I am the resurrection, and the life.” John McCrae was terribly moved. Alex Helmer had been one of his close friends. Shortly after that, he went and sat on the ambulance, looking at the grave and then writing the original version of In Flanders Fields.
Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson
Blown to bits
Already having been blown to bits, Helmer’s remains suffer further indignity, likely during the year after burial. Lone graves and battlefield cemeteries in the Ypres Salient especially susceptible to shellfire during the Great War. Having been blown to bits once, burial teams have little chance of recovering any remains. Or, having the ability to attribute any remains to an individual when the grave destroyed by shellfire. Alexis blown to bits not once, but twice.
Malakoff Farm
The reference to Malakoff Farm introduces the first bit of misinformation. The trench map reference mentioned not correct for Malakoff Farm, more accurately, the coordinates of Essex Farm. Sheet 28.B.22.b.1.0, the correct location for Malakoff Farm, precisely located 2.4 kilometers to the rear. Dead men never transported very far for their first burial. Helmer died on the bank of the Yser Canal, thoroughly discounting Malakoff Farm as the first location, and dubious for any other time, for the location of his remains. If Helmer had later succumbed to wounds, expect his remains in same cemetery as Lt Hague.
John McCrae’s Dressing Station
Note the Helmer Burial Coordinate position had only 50 yard accuracy. The Battlefield Grave position above more accurate, as the grave known not to be west of the road. Therefore, the Memorial Cross position extremely close to where it would be expected. By the last known location of the battlefield grave, destroyed sometime over the next three years.
Known from John McCrae’s description of buried in a quick hole by the bank, the British Trench Map reference, Sheet 28.C.19.c.1.1 fairly accurate. Single-digit coordinate provides 50 yard accuracy. This the first, if not last burial location of Lt Alexis Helmer. The reference not necessarily more accurately determined by the burial return location provided, Sheet 28.C.19.25.05. Double-digit coordinate provides 5 yard accuracy. More likely, this is where the Memorial Cross for Helmer erected, when the original grave destroyed.
White House Cemetery
Note the two other cases of In Memory of in the Burial Return. Interestingly, Private John Henry Hallows also listed on the Menin Gate. Hallows died on 8 May 1915, and like Helmer, buried by his comrades.
In Memory Of
In Memory of Private Pidgeon 104 also signifies when this collection made on 29 July 1919, the recovery teams visiting a grave clearly marked as In Memory Of – the body no longer knowingly located beneath the cross. The grave, remains, and original cross, too badly damaged by shellfire at some time during the war. So very common to the graves for instance of nearly all the men in Maple Copse Cemetery. Even though Private Pidgeon died later in 1918, the significance of In Memory of still applies.
Now the location of White House Cemetery understood. In July of 1919, the Memorial Cross of Lt Helmer intended for White House Cemetery cancelled with Helmer’s name instead listed on the Menin Gate.
Driver Harry Carter
Several other cases worth examining, those four other casualties of the CFA on 2 May 1915. Three buried to the rear at Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery died of their wounds, including Lt Hague, mortally wounded alongside Lt Helmer. The final man, Driver Harry Carter 42458 at Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, not his original location (Sheet 28.I.9.a.1.6). Carter first buried in the garden of a house on the east side of Ypres, St. Jean Road, on the north bank of the Bellewaardebeak, 3/4 of a mile north east of Ypres.
Carter with the 3rd Brigade, CFA on the opposite side of the Yser Canal from Helmer at the time of their deaths. His present location in Ypres Town Cemetery consistent with the burial team’s intent with Helmer’s body, had they found any trace of it.
Private Ivor Harrington Murray
Another interesting case to consider Private Ivor Harrington Murray 10729. Murray KIA sometime on or after 23 April 1915, buried Plot I, Row L, Grave 2 Essex Farm Cemetery. Coordinates provided in his CoD file match this grave (Sheet 28.c.25.a.4.8). The grave survived the rest of the war, unlike Helmer’s.
The Missing
In conclusion, the correct place for Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer will remain the Menin Gate Memorial. His story far from unique, for there are thousands just like his, where a man once buried by his comrades, or foe, had his battlefield grave later destroyed by shellfire. Far more soldiers, later lost, for many other reasons.
A lack of organization, and an organization (the IWGC), especially in the first two years of the war, and the fog of war throughout the war contributed to the vast number of The Missing. But most importantly, the work of the exhumation teams in the first few years following the Great War the greatest influence on whether a soldier listed on the Menin Gate or the Vimy Memorial for The Missing.
But what of the inspiration for In Flanders Fields? How did the death, and burial, of Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer lead John McCrae to write the quintessential poem of war?
In Flanders Fields
Original version of In Flanders Fields
Though Lieut-Col John McCrae respected throughout the world of medicine for the measure of his professional attainments, it is as one of the war poets that he commands a place in the hearts of those who use English as their mother tongue. One morning in November, 1915, John showed to Col Birkett, his commanding officer, a torn piece of wrapping paper. On which, after the Second Battle of Ypres, he had penciled a few lines. Those lines, famous now, originally published anonymously by London Punch, on 8 December.
Only three original hand-written copies of In Flanders Fields by John McCrae exist today. None of these believed to be what may have been perhaps the original copy, held by Col Birkett in November of 1915. Though John not attributed at the time of it’s publishing, one man immediately accused McCrae of its authorship, his good friend, Sir Andrew MacPhail. Punch Magazine attributes John as the author in its annual index on 29 December 1915, although misspelling his last name.
Cometh the Night
MacPhail read In Flanders Fields for the first time while stationed at No 6 Canadian Ambulance at a convent in front of Locre, in the shelter of Kemmel Hill. The poem brought to his attention by a Sapper Officer, then Major, now Brigadier. Sir Andrew immediately wrote to McCrae, saying he had proof, The Night Cometh, also penned by McCrae, as evidence.
It will be observed at once by reference to the text that in form the two poems are identical. They contain the same number of lines as surely all sonnets do. To the casual reader this much is obvious, but there are many subtleties in the verse which make the authorship inevitable.
Sir Andrew MacPhail
Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison, KCMG DSO
The officer, unnamed by MacPhail, must be none other than Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison, KCMG DSO. MacPhail notes the Officer could himself weave the sonnet with deft fingers, and he pointed out many deep things. Morrison’s (anonymous) description of In Flanders Fields reveals a deep appreciation for the sonnet.
It is to the sappers of the army always goes for technical material. The poem consists of thirteen lines in iambic tetrameter and two lines of two iambic each, in all one line more than the sonnet’s count. There are two rhymes only, since the short lines must be considered blank, and are, in fact, identical. But it is a different mode. It is true that the octet of the sonnet has only two rhymes, but these recur only four times, and the liberty of the tempers its despotism – which I thought a pretty phrase.
Sir E W B Morrison
Rhymester
Morrison pointed out the dangers inherent in a restrictive rhyme, and cited the cases of Browning, the great rhymester, prone to resort to any rhyme, and frequently ended in absurdity, finding it easier to make a new verse than to make an end. Morrison continues, his appreciation, and understanding of the words written by McCrae, truly unparalleled since.
The theme has three phases, the first a calm, a deadly calm, opening statement in five lines. The second in four lines, an explanation, a regret, a reiteration of the first. The third without preliminary crescendo breaking out into passionate adjuration in vivid metaphor, a poignant appeal which is at once a blessing and a curse. In the closing line is a satisfying return to the first phrase – and the thing is done. One is so often reminded of the poverty of man’s invention, their best being an incomlete, their greatest so trivial, that one welcomes what may become a new and fixed mode of expression in verse.
Theme
As to the theme itself, what is his is mine, what is mine is his – the interest is universal.
The dead, still conscious, fallen in a noble cause, see their graves overblown in a riot of poppy bloom. The poppy is the emblem of sleep. The dead desire to sleep undisturbed, but yet curiously take an interest in passing events. They regret that they have not been permitted to love out their life to its normal end. They call on the living to finish their task, else they shall not sink into that complete repose which they desire, in spite of the balm of the poppy.
vivos voco mortuos plango fulgura frango
Formalists may protest that the poet is not sincere, since it is the seed and not the flower that produces sleep. They might as well object that the poet has no right to impersonate the dead. We common folk know better. We know that in personating the dead, and calling in bell-like tones on the inarticulate living, the poet shall be enabled to break the lightning’s of the Beast, and thereby he, being himself, alas, dead, yet speaketh, and shall speak, to ones and twos and a host. As it is written in resonant bronze: vivos voco mortuos plango fulgura frango (i call the living, mourn the dead, break the thunderbolt).
Sir E W B Morrison
In a letter to MacPhail from Brigadier-General E W B Morrison, Sir Andrew further indirectly acknowledges the identity of the unnamed Officer.
Letter to MacPhail from Morrison
This poem was literally born of fire and blood during the hottest phase of the Second Battle of Ypres. My headquarters were in a trench on top of this spoil bank of the Ypres Canal, and John had his dressing station in a hole dug in the foot of the bank. During periods in the battle men who were shot actually rolled down the bank into the dressing station.
Along from us a few hundred yards was the headquarters of a regiment, and many times during the 16 days of battle, he (McCrae) and I watched them burying their dead whenever there was a lull. Thus the crosses row or row grew into a good-sized cemetery. Just as he describes, we often heard in the mornings the larks singing in the high air, between the crash of a shell and the reports of guns in the battery beside us. I have a letter from him in which he mentions having written the poem to pass away the time between the arrival of batches of wounded, and partly as an experiment with several varieties of poetic metre.
I have a sketch of the scene, taken at the time, including his dressing station, and during our operations at Passchendaele last November, I found time to make a sketch of the scene of the crosses row on row from which he derived his inspiration.
Brigadier-General E W B Morrison
Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson
The origins of In Flanders Fields also confirmed by Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson, serving with McCrae, and the author’s great-uncle, Gunner Francis Patrick Walshe during the Second Battle of Ypres.
A small group gathered together and John McCrae recites part of the burial service, which we all are familiar with: “I am the resurrection, and the life.” John McCrae was terribly moved. Alex Helmer had been one of his close friends. Shortly after that, he went and sat on the ambulance, looking at the grave and then writing the original version of In Flanders Fields.
Bombardier Cyril L C Allinson
4 May 1915, Completion of In Flanders Fields
Allinson’s account led some to believe McCrae composed the poem in its entirety immediately afterwards. Both McCrae’s and Morrison’s accounts however, describe it having been begun at the time, and John’s diary of 4 May 1915, two days after Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer’s funeral, reveals the opportunity for the work to be completed.
Despite intermittent shelling and some casualties the quietest day yet. But, we live in an uneasy atmosphere as German attacks are constantly being project, and our communications are interrupted and scrappy. We are running out of wire. We get o news of any sort, and have just to sit tight and hold on. Evening closed in rainy and dark. Our dugout is very slenderly provided against it, and we get pretty wet and very dirty. In the quieter morning hours we get a chance of a wash and occasionally a shave.
John McCrae, Tuesday, 4 May 1915
Bombardier Allison may have committed parts to memory on 2 May 1915, but likely the first copy of the poem given to Morrison, McCrae’s commanding officer. Or once again, as folklore has it, picked up by either Morrison or Allinson, after John had discarded it. John McCrae never mentioned any regret, at any time, over writing the poem. Quite unlikely he would have thrown it away, as he always recognized this work to be among his best.
Original Publication of In Flanders Fields
