Teddy Sheean

Edward "Teddy" Sheean, (28 December 1923 – 1 December 1942) was a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War.

Sheean was born in Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923, the youngest of fourteen children to James Sheean, a labourer, and his wife Mary Jane (née Broomhall).

Soon after his birth, the Sheean family moved to Latrobe, where he was educated at the local Catholic school.

Following the completion of his schooling, Sheean gained Casual employment working on several farms in the vicinity of Latrobe and Merseylea.

Born in Tasmania, Sheean was employed as a farm labourer when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941.

On 21 April 1941, Sheean enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.

He had followed in the steps of five of his brothers who had already joined the armed forces—four in the Australian Army and one in the Royal Australian Navy—for service in the Second World War.

Sheean was initially posted to the Hobart naval base HMAS Derwent for training, where he gained a period of seafaring experience aboard HMAS Coombar, an auxiliary minesweeper, from 17 to 31 December.

Following training at HMAS Derwent and the Flinders Naval Depot, he was posted to Sydney, where he joined the newly commissioned corvette HMAS Armidale in June 1942.

Sheean served aboard Armidale as she took part in escort duties along the eastern Australian coast and in New Guinea waters.

In October he transferred with the ship to Darwin, where Armidale was tasked with assisting Australian operations in Timor.

On 29 November 1942, Armidale set out for an operation to Betano, Timor, along with HMAS Castlemaine.

The two ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft along the way, and were subsequently late in arriving at their destination, missing a planned rendezvous with HMAS Kuru.

While returning to Darwin, the pair encountered Kuru south of Betano and it was decided by Castlemaine's commanding officer—as the senior officer—that Armidale and Kuru should make for Betano.

The two ships took different routes to Betano, during which both vessels came under aerial assault.

During a subsequent confrontation with thirteen Japanese aircraft on 1 December, Armidale was struck by two torpedoes and a bomb, and began to sink; the order to abandon ship was given.

After helping to free a life-raft, Sheean was wounded by two bullets.

He made his way to the aft Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and began to fire on the Japanese aircraft to protect those in the water.

Sheean managed to shoot down one of the Japanese bombers, but was killed when Armidale sank.

On finishing his initial training course, Sheean was attached to the Flinders Naval Depot in Western Port, Victoria, for further instruction from 11 February 1942.

Completing his course at the Flinders Naval Depot, Sheean was posted to the Garden Island naval base HMAS Penguin in Sydney Harbour on 11 May.

During his time with Penguin, he was berthed on HMAS Kuttabul, a Sydney ferry requisitioned for use as a barracks ship.

Granted a period of leave later that month, he returned home to Tasmania.

While he was on leave, Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour and sank Kuttabul on 31 May.

Returning to Sydney eleven days after the raid, Sheean joined the newly commissioned Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun loader.

Leaving Sydney Harbour in late August 1942, Sheean served aboard Armidale as she carried out "relatively uneventful" escort duties along the North Queensland, Port Moresby and Milne Bay coasts over the subsequent two months.

During October, Armidale was ordered to Darwin.

Setting sail, she arrived on 7 November and was detailed to assist in the Australian operations in Timor.

On 24 November 1942, the evacuation of the 2/2nd Australian Independent Company from Timor along with 150 Portuguese people was approved by the Allied Land Forces Headquarters.

In response to this, Commodore Cuthbert Pope, the Naval Officer-in-Charge Darwin, organised an operation utilising HMA Ships Kuru, Castlemaine and Armidale.

The operation was to involve the three ships undertaking two voyages each, the first to take place on the night of 30 November/1 December and involve a trip to Betano, Timor, in which the ships were to land 50 fresh Dutch guerrillas in the area along with supplies, and simultaneously withdraw 190 Dutch soldiers as well as the 150 Portuguese refugees.

The second excursion was to be carried out on the night of 4/5 December, and entail the extraction of the 2/2nd Independent Company.

At 22:30 on 28 November 1942, Kuru set sail for Betano.

Kuru was scheduled to arrive at approximately 20:30 on 30 November, where she was to unload the supplies on board and embark the Portuguese refugees, which were to transfer to Castlemaine once she arrived along with Armidale two hours later.

Consideration was given to awarding Sheean the Victoria Cross for Australia (VC) and, in 1999, the RAN submarine HMAS Sheean was named in his honour.

An inquiry in 2013 recommended that he not be awarded the VC.

A 2019 inquiry recommended in favour of the award, but was rejected by the Government.

Many of the survivors credited their lives to Sheean and he was posthumously mentioned in despatches, this award was later cancelled on 1 December 2020 when upgraded to the Victoria Cross for Australia.

Another inquiry held during 2020 recommended that Sheean be awarded the VC, and this was accepted by the Government.

Queen Elizabeth II approved the award on 12 August 2020.