On the surface, the reason was to combat theft and vandalism.

But the first Shrine guards were 14 decorated World War I veterans, and historian Anthony McAleer says the move was a salve both for the visiting public and the often war-scarred guards themselves.

A service at the Shrine on Friday at noon will commemorate 80 years of Shrine Guards.

Mr McAleer will give a talk about one of the first guards, WWI Victoria Cross recipient George Ingram. He says the discipline and mateship of Ingram's four years in the role could have saved his life.

Ingram, from the Yarra Valley, gained his VC for helping seize the village of Montbrehain, France, from the Germans on October 5, 1918.

In several frenzied attacks that day, Ingram captured nine machine guns, killed 42 German soldiers and captured 62 of them.

Ingram later told his wife he was spurred on by his brothers Ronald and Alex having both been killed in action in 1917. Many close friends had also been killed or wounded in the war.

Despite public adulation from the VC, Ingram's postwar life was tragic. His first wife left him. (He was to marry twice more, and have two sons).

A soldier-settlement farm at Dandenong failed, as did a woodyard. He could only get a one-third veteran's pension.

He suffered from war-related malaria and lung and leg injuries, and shrapnel that had lodged in his chin was surgically removed 10 years after the war.

On several occasions, he was hospitalised with war neurosis – today's post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr McAleer, author of a new biography, Great Courage and Initiative: the Heroic Life of George Ingram, says having war heroes guarding the Shrine enhanced the public's pride in it.

But he says for Ingram, the role was his "saving grace", not just a steady job.

There was the mateship with fellow guards, who knew what he was going through, and a sense of purpose guarding the building many Victorians regarded as a grave for lost loved ones.

"It certainly turned his life around. You see him in a better frame of mind. Between 1919 and 1934, his repat files are filled with all these problems he's having, and that doesn't start up again until 1948."

"You see him go from not being able to work, not being able to cope, to suddenly being able to do that."

In 1939, Ingram felt strong enough to re-enlist in the Army to train engineers. After the war he worked for a building company and had a happy family life. He died in 1961.