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News Report:
Australian hero Teddy Sheean will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross following an expert panel's review. His nephew Gary Ivory has spent decades fighting for the World War II sailor to receive the highest military honour.
htps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8611999/War-hero-Teddy-Sheean-saved-49-lives-ship-sank-awarded-Victoria-Cross-78-years-later.html
More about Teddy Sheean a little later.
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By way of background:
The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award
of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence
of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded
posthumously. It was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of
which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend
British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any
service.
The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria
to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War.
Australia was the first Commonwealth realm to create its own
VC, on 15 January 1991. Although it is a separate award, its appearance is identical
to its British counterpart.
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It was gratifying to read that Teddy Sheean will more than
likely receive the Victoria Cross that he so richly deserves.
I had posted an item about him on 26 April, 2011, the day
after Anzac Day. Back then the blog
allowed reader comments to be posted, now it can only be done by email
responses from subscribers. I received
some heartwarming responses to the post, both the items and the responses are reposted below.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The following item would have been appropriate for an Anzac Day posting but
came to my attention only after that day had passed. Nonetheless, I will
post it because it has a significance that goes beyond Anzac Day.
Some time ago, I read about a young sailor, Edward Sheean,
who had been killed in action in 1942.
I came across his name again yesterday when I saw an item in
the previous week's Sunday newspaper that I was throwing out. The news item
that caught my eye was that eleven sailors and two soldiers are being
considered for posthumous Victoria Cross awards for acts of bravery and
gallantry. Not one sailor has ever been awarded the Victoria Cross. Included in
the list of persons being considered are Edward Sheean and Private John Simpson
Kirkpatrick, who is today remembered for collecting the wounded from the
Gallipoli battlefields with his famous donkey.
Edward Sheean with his family, c1941.
Back row: Edward
(Teddy); Frederick.
Front row: James
(father); Mary (mother); William.
Edward “Teddy” Sheean was born on 28 December 1923 in
Barrington, Tasmania. In 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Australian navy as an
Ordinary Seaman. Upon completion of his training he was posted to the
corvette HMAS Armidale.
On 1st December 1942 the Armidale was
attacked by Japanese aircraft – 9 bombers and 4 fighters - whilst enroute to
Timor. Despite taking evasive action, the vessel was struck by two air-launched
torpedoes. As the vessel began to sink, the order was given to abandon ship but
crew members who leapt into the sea were strafed by the attacking aircraft.
After assisting to free a life raft, Sheean was struck by bullets in the chest
and back. He managed to scramble across the listing deck, strapped himself into
the aft Oerlikon 20mm cannon and began shooting at the fighters to protect the
sailors already in the sea. He managed to keep the Japanese aircraft away, shooting
down one of the Japanese planes and damaging two others, all the while as the
water kept rising up his body.
According to Ordinary Seaman Russell Caro, Sheean was “still
firing as he disappeared beneath the waves”.
Sheean's crewmates later testified to witnessing tracers
rising from beneath the water's surface as Sheean was dragged under.
Of the 149 men aboard the Armidale, 49 survived. Many of the
survivors attributed their lives to Sheean’s actions.
For his "bravery and devotion when HMAS
Armidale was lost", Sheean was recognised with a posthumous
Mention in Despatches, although many hold that he was worthy of a Victoria
Cross.
At the time of his death, Ordinary Seaman Edward
"Teddy" Sheean was 18 years old.
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Reader comments:
Duna April 26, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Lest we forget...Thanks for the post on young Sheean.
D. W. Hodge
LCDR, U.S. Navy
Tiana Kelly June 2, 2011 at 12:23 PM
teddy is my great great uncle and it's great to see people
like yourself reading about him so much, it's great to come across someone's
article about him and got all the facts about his death correct, =) my great
uncle garry ivory actually got together with a lady named marlene and wrote a
song about uncle teddy, it's called "teddy sheean you're a hero to
me". my uncle garry ivory has just got back from a trip to the canberra
war memorial and the hobart TAS memorial, he is fighting for uncle teddy to be
awarded the VC... he was in tuesday's paper (the advocate) once again =)
LynneMarch 4, 2012 at 7:17 PM
Teddy was my Great Uncle and I've published my version of
his story here: http://web.me.com/lynne_paul/Lynnes_Site/Teddy_Sheean.htmlhttp://web.me.com/lynne_paul/Lynnes_Site/Teddy_Sheean.html
You can also see more links and photos from the Facebook
Group I've just created:
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