Old Boy Jackson Phillips (2018) has written a remarkable stage play, telling the story of Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean, Australia鈥檚 youngest Victoria Cross (VC) recipient, who was killed on HMAS Armidale in 1942 and received his VC posthumously after a long battle 80 years later. At the Gallipoli Memorial Club鈥檚 Lone Pine commemorative evening on 5 August 2025, Ollie Goold (Y11) performed a monologue from Jackson鈥檚 play, reviving a letter Teddy wrote to his mother two days before he was killed.
JACKSON PHILLIPS鈥� SPEECH AT COMMEMORATIVE EVENING: Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean grew up in a little town called Latrobe in Tasmania. He was the youngest of 14 children. His father was James Sheean, his mother was Mary. When World War II arrived, he enlisted in the Navy. In late November 1942, Teddy found himself on the HMAS Armidale as the gunner of the aft Oerlikon [the rear anti-aircraft cannon]. And during an operation just north of Darwin, as his ship was being shot down by Japanese enemy aircraft and whilst he was already wounded, Teddy strapped himself into his gun and fired back until he went down with the ship. For this, he received a Mention in Despatches.
This was the tale of Teddy Sheean for the better part of a century. This was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
It wasn鈥檛 until 2011, when a little board called the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal was established, that Teddy鈥檚 story would begin its long 10-year journey towards finally being rewritten.
For you see, for the better part of a century, the tale of Teddy Sheean was fundamentally incorrect and incomplete. And whilst the obscured truth would be time and time again denied or rejected over the course of that decade, it would not be until 2020, when Teddy鈥檚 case eventually found its way in front of our very own guest of honour here today, Dr Brendan Nelson, that the entire true narrative would finally be uncovered.
Called upon by the Prime Minister to chair a panel consisting of three other men 鈥� Dr Peter Shergold, Mr David Bennett QC, and Mr Brad Manera 鈥� they were tasked with reviewing whether compelling new evidence existed proving that Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean should receive a Victoria Cross for Australia. And with two previous inquiries into Teddy鈥檚 case having already taken place over the previous 9 years, and in both instances with nothing compelling enough being found and no retrospective awards being given, the four men quickly realised that for them to have any chance of finding anything, pigs would have to fly.
鈥淎 story of perseverance, justice and redemption. This is a story that needs to be told. Teddy Sheean deserved the VC. Now, Australia deserves the truth behind why he never received one in the first place.鈥�
JACKSON PHILLIPS (2018), PLAYWRIGHT
But, on 10 August 2020, after reviewing everything the four men could find after their six weeks of investigating, the Prime Minister finally recommended Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean for the Victoria Cross.
My play, titled 鈥�101st鈥�, tells the story of how they pulled off the impossible. We hope, in the coming months and years, to bring this story to life. A story of perseverance, justice and redemption. This is a story that needs to be told. Teddy Sheean deserved the VC. Now, Australia deserves the truth behind why he never received one in the first place.
However, before you all eventually get to know Brendan, Peter, David and Brad, I would like you all now to meet Teddy Sheean [monologue performed by Ollie Goold]. An 18-year-old kid, writing home to his mother, just days before he鈥檇 be laid to rest at the bottom of the Timor Sea.
Jackson Phillips (2018), keynote speaker Sir Peter Cosgrove, Ollie Goold (Y11) and Dr Brendan Nelson AO at the Gallipoli Memorial Club鈥檚 Lone Pine commemorative evening
