During World War I, George Crerar served in the AIF, initially at Gallipoli (where he was wounded) and later in France. In April 1917, during operations near Bullecourt, he was hit by a shell fragment and subsequently died of meningitis in hospital at Rouen. The Australian War Memorial holds a Red Cross inquiry file into Crerar's death which contains a specific reference to his poem 'Up and down the Duck-Boards' having been published in the Sydney Bulletin.
