Queen approves Teddy Sheean’s Victoria Cross in ‘great day for nation’

WWII hero Teddy Sheean finally has his Victoria Cross, ending what an inquiry concluded was a 78-year ‘injustice’.

After almost 78 years, World War II hero Teddy Sheean finally has his Victoria Cross; the Queen consenting to the long-overdue top military honour, the Royal Australian Navy’s first VC.

The monarch’s approval brings to an end what an inquiry concluded was a 78-year “injustice” in denying the young sailor a VC for his “pre-eminent act of valour and most conspicuous gallantry” aboard HMAS Armidale in 1942.

Sheean’s nephew, Garry Ivory, told The Australian confirmation of the posthumous VC for his uncle after a more than 30 year personal campaign was pure joy and relief.

“He’s got it and they can’t take it off him!” Mr Ivory said. “This is the real deal. You’ll hear me yahooing from here (Launceston).”

Governor-General David Hurley said it was a “momentous day” for the Sheean family, whose “pride and emotion” was evident.

“It is also a significant moment for all Australians and … the ADF and the RAN,” he said. “As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War it is especially poignant.

“Teddy Sheean exemplifies the characteristics that our serving men and women have demonstrated in conflicts throughout history and that now define Australia: mateship, endurance, courage and sacrifice.

“In remembering Teddy, acknowledging his service and honouring his courage, we also preserve the legacy of the generations that have served and shaped our nation.”

Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, said it was “great day – for our Navy, our nation and a young Australian sailor who paid the highest price to save his shipmates from certain death”.

“His (Sheean’s) heroism has become a standard our men and women of our modern Navy aspire to,” he said. “His spirit of courage, of sacrifice and of service is an enduring part of our Navy, living on through our fleet and our people…I cannot understate the esteem in which he is held.”

Ordinary Seaman Sheean was the youngest crew member aboard the HMAS Armidale when it was fatally struck by Japanese bombers in the Timor Sea on December 1, 1942.

The 18-year-old labourer’s son from Lower Barrington in Tasmania’s rural northwest, not long at sea, reached the relatively safety of a lifeboat before seeing his shipmates being strafed in the water by Zero fighters.

Instead of entering the lifeboat, he turned away, ignoring orders to abandon ship, and returned to a gun post, being wounded en route.

Despite being a gun loader, not a gunner, he strapped himself to the gun and fired at the Japanese aircraft, hitting several and drawing fire away from his shipmates in the water. He continued firing even as the ship slipped under the surface.

Mr Ivory said he planned to celebrate confirmation of the VC with Jack Bird, a veteran who undertook military training with this uncle in Hobart, by “knocking the top off” a bottle of commemorative port presented to him when HMAS Sheean was commissioned in 2001.

Sheean’s extraordinary actions were mentioned in dispatches, but he was overlooked by the Admiralty for a VC. An epic campaign has followed to rectify what his shipmates, family and many in the naval community saw as a glaring oversight.

A 2013 inquiry failed to recommend a VC, but in July 2019 a military awards appeal tribunal unanimously backed the honour, citing new evidence and errors in the handling of the case.

That recommendation was earlier this year knocked by the Prime Minister, partly in response to strong opposition from Chief of Defence Angus Campbell, who claimed it could lead to a “swathe” of similar retrospective claims and risked damaging “Australia’s standing … with the Queen”.

However, under pressure from Sheean supporters and Tasmania MPs, Scott Morrison called an expert review of the new evidence. Chaired by former defence minister Brendan Nelson, it unanimously backed the seaman’s claim to a VC and found corroborating evidence in Japanese military archives.

An investiture ceremony is expected in coming months.