The picture of bravery …

Robert Grieve is wearing a hospital blue armband on his left arm in this studio portrait taken in the UK in 1917, indicating he was wounded at the time. Picture: Australian War Memorial

EIGHT Victoria Cross recipients are buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery – probably more than any other cemetery in Australia. Among the VC heroes is Robert Grieve. His conspicuous gallantry during an attack at Messines, Belgium, in 1917, earned him the coveted medal. He led his company to the enemy’s third line in the face of heavy artillery and machine gun fire. After all his officers had been wounded and his company had suffered heavy casualties, he located two enemy machine guns.
Alone, he ran forward 50 yards in the open under constant fire and single-handedly killed the machine gun crews.
Read Robert Grieve’s full story as well as the stories of many Greater Dandenong soldiers who put up their hand to fight, in Monday’s special Anzac commemorative edition of the Journal.