“A Victoria Cross awarded to Ordinary Seaman Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean, the first in the Royal Australia Navy, as we the last survivors live out our days, would give us all a sense of rightness and recognition for all our ship-mates who did not survive.”
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Those are the words of Dr Ray Leonard, the last-surviving crew member of HMAS Armidale, which was sunk on December 1, 1942.
The letter, written in August, was a key part of the latest submission seeking recognition for Teddy Sheean’s courageous and selfless actions on the day of his death.
The 18-year-old from Latrobe was the youngest member of the crew – all of the other sailors had already turned 19, Dr Leonard said.
On the first day of December the corvette was attacked by a party of Japanese aircrafts and bombers, about 110 kilometres south of Timor.
Dr Leonard said he was stationed on the bridge when Armidale was struck by a torpedo and the captain ordered the crew and officers to abandon ship.
“Once in the water I immediately commenced to swim away away from the ship and as I did, so I heard, in addition to the enemy’s fire, a different sound which I recognised as coming from the Armidale Oerlikon gun,” Dr Leonard wrote.
“For the next 10 minutes or so we were machine gunned by enemy fighters.
“When these planes departed I swam towards the focal point of our motor boat and there I met up with my shipmate Ordinary Seaman Russel Caro who told me, and others within hearing, that as the Armidale was sinking he saw Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean firing the after-deck Oerlikon at attacking planes, and saw Sheean, still at his gun, go down with the ship.
“Other crew members said they witnessed the same events. It was clearly understood that Sheean was trying to thwart the Japanese zeros from attacking the ship and strafing his mates in the water.”
The shipmate mentioned by Dr Leonard, one Ordinary Seaman Russel Caro, has a recollection of the event stored at the Australian War Memorial.
He said none who survived would ever forget Teddy Sheean’s gallant deed.
“When the order ‘abandon ship’ was given, he made for the side, only to be hit twice by the bullets of an attacking zero,” Caro is quoted.
“None of us will ever know what made him do it, but he went back to his gun, strapped himself in, and brought down a Jap plane, still firing as he disappeared beneath the waves.”
In his report of proceedings, the Armidale’s commanding officer Lieutenant Commander David Richards said, although wounded, Ordinary Seaman Sheean stayed at his post and was responsible for bringing down one enemy bomber.
Ordinary Seaman Sheean was posthumously awarded a Mention in Despatches, but many believe he should have received the Navy’s first VC.
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Military historian Dr Tom Lewis said the letter written by Dr Leonard showed how his comrades witnessed Sheean’s death.
“It is clear than many of the sailors knew Sheean saved them from further strafing as they were in the water,” he said. “His determined effort to hold off the enemy fighters and bombers was in the finest traditions of naval bravery.”
It has been 75 years since the loss of the Armidale and for almost 30 of those years Teddy Sheean’s family, and others, have been fighting for him to be awarded a VC.
In 2011 the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal began what was later known as the Valor Inquiry, investigating 13 cases of unresolved recognition for past acts of gallantry.
When its decision was handed down in 2013, the tribunal concluded there was no “manifest injustice” or “new evidence” to support reconsideration for a VC.
“The tribunal concluded that Sheean's actions displayed conspicuous gallantry but did not reach the particularly high standard required for recommendation for a VC,” the report said.
But Dr Lewis said for members of the Navy to be awarded a VC there was a “cumbersome administrative procedures at the time”.
“The Navy had to apply through London and Britain’s Royal Navy for their awards to be approved,” Dr Lewis said.
“The Army and the RAAF did not. That is a most unfair system.”
On January 8, 2018, Commander Paul Fothergill confirmed that the Navy was in “the process of a thorough examination of past tribunal considerations and outcomes” and reviewing options to present to the Chief of Navy, Tim Barrett.
Dr Leonard is extremely ill, but was “delighted” when he heard the Navy was reviewing the case.