This virtual cache is dedicated to John McCrae (1872-1918); soldier, medical doctor, author, and poet. McCrae is best known as the author of the poem In Flanders Fields, a poem that became a defining influence on the monument located at the above co-ordinates.
John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Toronto and McGill University and earned his degree in medicine. Shortly after graduating from medical school, he joined the army and served in the Boer War as an artillery officer. After the war he practiced and taught medicine but volunteered again for military service at the outbreak of the first world war. During this war he served as a physician and it was during an especially difficult battle in Belgium that he wrote In Flanders Fields. He died late in the war in a military hospital in France. The year 2018 marks the hundredth anniversary of his death.
This monument was inspired especially by the words "To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high" taken from McCrae's poem. To receive credit for finding this cache, your log must contain a photograph of you in front of that part of the monument that reflects the words in the above quotation from In Flanders Fields.
The building across Grafton Street from this cache is the head office of Veterans Affairs Canada, the only head office of a federal ministry located outside the Ottawa-Gatineau area.
This virtual cache replaces and was inspired by an archived nano cache (GC15Y9J) in the same location owned by two of the local pioneers of geocaching, Mingan Patch and kbviper.
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.