Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean
By J.H. Straczek
Who was Teddy Sheean? Edward "Teddy" Sheean was in many ways an ordinary Australian. Born on 28 December 1923 at Barrington Tasmania. His family subsequently moved to Latrobe and it was here that he attended the local Catholic School. As was common at this time, he received only a basic education before starting to work with his father as a carpenter and wood cutter. With the Second World War raging in Europe and the Middle East and the possibility of war with Japan Teddy Sheean did what many young Australians did, he volunteered to serve his country.
On 21 April 1941 Teddy Sheean enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. He was initially attached to HMAS Derwent, the naval depot at Hobart. Whilst attached to Derwent he served onboard the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Coombar. On his 18 birthday he joined HMAS Cerberus, at Western Port Victoria, to undertake further training. From Cerberus he was posted to HMAS Penguin, joining on 11 May 1942. Whilst at Penguin he was posted to the new Bathurst Class corvette HMAS Armidale (I). He helped commission the ship and on completion of her work ups commenced operations along the east coast. On 22 August 1942 Armidale, with Teddy Sheean onboard, departed Sydney for the last time. She carried out escort duties in the North Queensland-Port Moresby-Milne Bay area until arriving in Darwin on 7 November 1942. After arrival in Darwin Armidale was allocated to support Australian operations on Timor, the role that would result in the loss of the ship and many of those onboard.
On 1st December, Armidale was attacked by Japanese aircraft whilst enroute to Timor. The ship ship was severely damaged and had to be abandoned. As the crew were abandoning ship Japanese began machine-gunning survivors in the water. When he saw this, Ordinary-Seaman Edward Teddy Sheean, though himself wounded, manned the aft 20 mm Oerlikon gun and began shooting at the attacking aircraft, he shot one down and damaged two others. Sheean remained at the gun and continued to engage the enemy aircraft even as the ship went down. Teddy Sheean gave up his chance to escape and died trying to save his mates. For this act of selfless bravery he was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches, second only to a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Of the 149 men onboard Armidale when she sank 47 were killed in the air attack, the subsequent machine-gunning or died shortly afterwards. Many of those who made it into the water and ultimately survived owe their lives to Teddy Sheean and his act of bravery
