William Joynt William Donovan Joynt VC ( 19 March 1889 – 6 June 1986 ) , an office worker , farm labourer , soldier , farmer , printer , publisher and author , was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy given to British and Commonwealth forces . On 23 August 1918 at Herleville , near Chuignes , Peronne , France , he performed an act of bravery for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross . Early life . Joynt was born at Elsternwick , Melbourne and educated at The Grange Preparatory School and later Melbourne Church of England Grammar School . After working in a number of office jobs in Melbourne , in 1909 he sailed to Rockhampton and worked as a farm labourer in North Queensland , the Victorian Mallee , Western Australia and Flinders Island . First World War . He enlisted in the A . I . F . on 21 May 1915 , was commissioned on 24 December 1915 , and arrived in France in May 1916 . He fought in France until August 1918 , where he was commended in divisional orders , shot in the shoulder , and promoted to lieutenant . On 23 August 1918 , he was 29 years old , and a lieutenant in the 8th ( Victorian ) Battalion , Australian Imperial Force during the First World War , when the following events occurred . He was subsequently badly wounded by a shell on 26 August and evacuated to England . He was promoted to captain in October 1918 , and posted to AIF Headquarters in London in March 1919 . He returned to Melbourne in February 1920 , and was discharged on 11 June . Inter - bellum . Having studied agriculture and sheep - breeding in England in 1919 , in 1920 Joynt became a soldier settler , dairy farming near Berwick . By 1929 he was pursuing business interests in Melbourne , where he was a pioneer of colour printing in Australia . About 1920 he had formed Queen City Printers Pty Ltd , and subsequently formed Colarts Studios Pty Ltd and bought the rights to a German colour - printing process . Under various business names , Joynt remained a printer and publisher for over sixty years . He married Edith Amy Garrett , a trained nurse , in a civil ceremony at Hawthorn on 19 March 1932 , his forty - third birthday . Joynt was one of a number of ex - servicemen who in 1923 founded the Legacy Club of Melbourne , the first of fifty Legacy Clubs . He helped lead the club ’ s successful campaign to have Melbourne ’ s Shrine of Remembrance built in its present form on its present site . He was active in the Militia in 1926 - 33 , being promoted to major in February 1930 . Second World War . Joynt was mobilised on 26 September 1939 and placed in command of the at Fort Queenscliff and subsequently Puckapunyal . From June 1942 he was camp staff officer then quartermaster at Seymour camp . Having passed his 55th birthday , he was placed on the Retired List as an honorary lieutenant colonel on 10 October 1944 . Post war . Joynt and his wife rented , then bought , Tom Roberts ’ old home , Talisman , at Kallista and lived there until they built their own home nearby . Joynt wrote three books : His wife Edith died in 1978 . The last surviving of Australia ’ s World War I VC recipients , he died on 5 May 1986 at Windsor and was buried with full military honours in Brighton Cemetery . He had no children . Medals . His Victoria Cross is held at Melbourne Grammar School .