John McCrae: Beyond Flanders Fields - with Susan Raby-Dunne

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Author, historian, and battlefield guide Susan Raby-Dunne joins us to discuss her book "John McCrae: Beyond Flanders Fields."

Most Canadians are familiar with John McCrae through his iconic poem "In Flanders Fields," which was penned on the battlefields of the First World War and remains a symbol of remembrance to this day. Although he will always be remembered as a war poet, the Guelph, Ontario, native was a physician, a university professor, and a veteran of the Second Boer War before he ever laid eyes on the carnage at Flanders Fields. Citing rarely seen diary entries and letters, as well as never-before-published photos of McCrae's early life, military historian and McCrae enthusiast Susan Raby-Dunne tells the complete story of John McCrae—a man whose final chapter of life made him immortal, but who accomplished so much and helped so many in the decades before.

Canadian War History Tours: https://canadianwarhistorytours.ca/

The BFWWP is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BattlesoftheFirstWorldWarPodcast.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The The
0:23.6	The Hey folks, welcome to the battles of the First World War podcast.
0:53.7	Joining us today is Ms. Susan Raby Dunn, here to discuss her expanding biography titled John McRae
1:00.9	Beyond Flanders Fields. Susan Rabid Dunn is a Canadian author, military historian and battlefield
1:07.9	guide in France and Belgium. She's had many pursuits as a rancher
1:12.3	and breeder of dressage horses as a warhealer, as a touring motorcyclist, and always as a writer.
1:19.5	Very cool. Susan has written eight well-reviewed books, one nominated for an award. Her dynamic
1:25.4	presentations about World War I have been reviewed as
1:29.0	riveting, passionate, and first-rate on-the-ground historical research. She plans to explore
1:34.8	writing more fiction. In 2011, she followed the path to France and Belgium by motorcycle of her
1:42.8	World War I subject in Flandersfield's poet,
1:46.1	Lieutenant Colonel John McRae.
1:48.2	It was as close as I could get to horseback, which was how he traveled in World War I.
1:53.8	Her small, customized European tours with Canadian war history tours tend to be cathartic,
1:59.8	even healing for her clients, as they
2:02.0	come to truly understand what their relatives went through in the World Wars.
2:06.5	Clients also find it particularly moving to stand at the grave of a relative who fell in one
2:11.2	of the World Wars, sometimes being the first in their family to do so.
2:16.7	A link to Canadian War History Tours will be provided in the show notes.
2:20.8	Folks, do check it out as there are some unique tours that Susan offers.
2:25.4	Obviously, that's a bit of a basic bro here.
2:29.5	The Battlefields and Beer Tour caught my eye right away.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Cunha, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Cunha and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.