GUELPH-Everyone knows Guelph native son John McCrae, a First World War lieutenant-colonel, wrote the famous war poem "In Flanders Fields."

But why he's about to be inducted next year into the Canadian Medical hall of Fame on the 100th anniversary of that poem isn't the poignant literary work.

Instead, it's his diligent medical research and innovation after earning a University of Toronto medical degree in 1898, an internship at Johns Hopkins University and pathology fellowship and laboratory training at Montreal's McGill University.

"His most significant contribution in the medical field was he wrote a book called 'A Textbook of Pathology for Students of Medicine'," Guelph Museums curator Bev Dietrich said Tuesday, adding it was co-authored with a colleague at McGill, Dr. George Adami. It was so highly valued that it was updated two years later, in 1914, with a second edition, she added.

McCrae and five others are to be inducted into the hall of fame on April 23 of next year, a century after McCrae's poem was first published to global acclaim. Dietrich said those attending the Winnipeg ceremony will likely include a contingent from Guelph.

Mayor Karen Farbridge said the honor recognizes McCrae's "tremendous contributions as a doctor." The nomination by the local museum and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada notes McCrae's work almost a century ago led to medical insight into diseases like tuberculosis, scarlet fever and pneumonia.

In all, Dietrich said, he wrote almost 30 medical papers on a variety of topics while conducting autopsies and other pathology work at hospitals in Montreal before the war. That's highlighted at McGill's medical museum. "Some of his specimens are still there."

vkirsch@guelphmercury.com