Site John McCrae
| Kanaaldijk - site John McCrae | |
| Coordinates | 50°52′15″N 02°52′23″E / 50.87083°N 2.87306°E |
|---|---|
| Location | Ieper, West Flanders, Belgium |
| Type | war memorial site |
| Dedicated to | John McCrae (1872–1918) |
| administrated by the Municipality of Ieper | |
Site John McCrae (Dutch: Kanaaldijk - site John McCrae) is a World War I memorial site near Ypres, Belgium. It is named after the Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872–1918), author of the famous poem "In Flanders Fields", which he composed while serving at this site in 1915.
Site John McCrae is located directly adjacent to the Ieperlee (Ypres Canal), about halfway in between the centre of Ypres and the centre of Boezinge, about 2.5 km from each. The memorial site is set in between Diksmuidseweg (N369) in the west and the Ieperlee in the east, and can - for the purpose of orientation - be roughly divided into four sections: The south-west of the site is now occupied by the Essex Farm CWGC Cemetery. The north-western quarter is privately used as farmland, while the north-east and south-east are partially wooded and dominated by the artificially constructed earthen ridge of the embankment, which runs parallel to the Ieperlee. In the centre of the memorial site are the remains of concrete bunkers used by a British Advanced Dressing Station, while separate memorials to John McCrae and his poem In Flanders Fields are just to the east of these bunkers. In the north-eastern quarter of the memorial site are the remains of emergency housing provided by the Belgian government for the local population during the First World War, while the most visible landmark in the south-eastern quarter of the site is the memorial to the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division on the ridge of the dyke.
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