Former TV journalist Georgi Glover shares family twin tragedy to salute overlooked heroes

As a TV journalist, Georgi Glover was no stranger to confronting stories. But a personal connection to a hideous tragedy has made her determined to bring it to light.

Georgi Glover spent years as a TV reporter, with tragic news stories a part of the job.

But it was researching the fate of her twin great-uncles at Sandakan in World War Two that showed her the worst of human cruelty — and the greatest examples of courage.

Shedding tears as she watched the new Anzac360: Sandakan Death March virtual reality film ahead of Remembrance Day, Glover urged Australians to remember an episode that was the worst military atrocity in our history, yet is rarely discussed by comparison to other wartime events.

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“Kokoda is so well-known but Sandakan has been virtually forgotten,” she said. “It’s almost unfair.”

We won’t forget ... Georgi Glover with pictures of her great-uncles Fred and Cecil Glover, who died at Sandakan and in the Death March acroos Borneo during WWII. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Twins Fred and Cecil Glover of Sydney were among almost 2,500 unarmed men, the majority Australians, who lost their lives in Borneo as the war dragged to a close, in a desperate chain of events culminating in the hideous Sandakan Death March.

While hundreds of Aussies and Brits succumbed to disease, starvation and brutality as captives of the Japanese in Sandakan prison camp, more than a thousand were marched 250km across the rugged interior as an ever-weakening labour force.

Only six survived, by escaping; the rest died from exhaustion, illness or at the hands of their guards.

Twin’s forlorn hope ... Fred (left) thought he could get home to their family after Cecil died of illness and injury at Sandakan Camp. Fred was shot dead weeks later.

Fred was one of the few who volunteered to march, after malaria-stricken Cecil was fatally wounded in a bungled Allied air raid on Sandakan.

“Fred thought he could survive and take the news home to their mum,” said Glover.

He was wrong.

“He was shot in front of his mates halfway through the march,” she said, a lump in her throat. “He was too exhausted.”

Glover has been to the hill where Fred was slain, trekking the Sandakan route with her father Richard and Sydney historian Lynette Silver — Australia’s pre-eminent expert on Sandakan and a consultant to the new Anzac360 production telling the story in immersive virtual reality and 360-degree vision.

The forbidding terrain features prominently in the film, accompanied by a chilling witness account from one of the six escapees, NSW’s Keith Botterill.

Family mission in rugged terrain ... Georgi Glover on the Sandakan Death March route with (left) father Richard Glover and uncle Geoff Glover, holding flowers for the fallen.

“We lost five men on that mountain in half a day,” Botterill said after the war. “They shot five of them because they couldn’t continue … I was heartbroken.”

Glover — best known to the public from her time with Channel Ten, now a mum-of-one who works for the Victor Chang Institute — invited Aussies to watch the nine-minute film and said education bosses should let students view it in schools.

“Surrounded by mobile phones and the distractions of modern life we need something like this to get people out, to put them in the middle of the jungle and to help them remember.

“It’s the younger generations that will get the most out of this and it’s vital that schools around Australia have access.”

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See the new Anzac360 virtual reality films on Hellfire Pass and the Sandakan Death March by downloading the free Anzac360 app at the Apple Store, Google Play store or for your Oculus device.

It works best on phone, tablet or headset but can also be viewed on a desktop or laptop.

Worst of cruelty, best of courage ... artist’s impression of an incident on the Sandakan Death March, where hundreds of weakened POWs were beaten and shot by their captors. Picture courtesy of Lynette Silver.