Physician, soldier and poet he was ready when the occasion came to express himself in words, such as we have in these verses. And the occasion came as he bore his part in the World War; in the terrific fighting which marked the second battle of Ypres, for it was there that these lines were written. * * * *
General Morrison write “The 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 the top of the bank of the Ypres Canal, and John had his dressing station in a hole dug at the foot of the bank. *
During periods in the battle, men who were shot, actually rolled down the bank into his dressing station. Along from us a few hundred yards, was the headquarters of a regiment and many times during the sixteen days of battle, he and I watched them burying their dead whenever there was a lull. Thus the crosses, row on row, grew into a good sized cemetery. Just as he describes we often heard, in the mornings, the larks
