he is always going to the wars." The remark was profoundly significant
of the state of mind upon the subject of war which prevailed at the time
in Canada in more intelligent persons. To this storeman war merely meant
that the less usefully employed members of the community
sent their boxes to him for safe-keeping until their return.
War was a great holiday from work; and he had a vague remembrance
that some fifteen years before this customer had required of him
a similar service when the South African war broke out.

Either `in esse' or `in posse' John McCrae had "always been going
to the wars." At fourteen years of age he joined the Guelph Highland Cadets,
and rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. As his size and strength increased
he reverted to the ranks and transferred to the Artillery. In due time
he rose from gunner to major. The formal date of his "Gazette" is 17-3-02
as they write it in the army; but he earned his rank in South Africa.

War was the burden of his thought; war and death the theme of his verse.
At the age of thirteen we find him at a gallery in Nottingham,
writing this note: "I saw the picture of the artillery going over
the trenches at Tel-el-Kebir. It is a good picture; but there are four teams
on the guns. Perhaps an extra one had to be put on." If his nomenclature
was not correct, the observation of the young artillerist was exact.
Such excesses were not permitted in his father's battery in Guelph, Ontario.
During this same visit his curiosity led him into the House of Lords,
and the sum of his written observation is, "When someone is speaking
no one seems to listen at all."

His mother I never knew. Canada is a large place. With his father I had
four hours' talk from seven to eleven one June evening in London in 1917.
At the time I was on leave from France to give the Cavendish Lecture,