Teddy Sheean VC with Dr Brendan Nelson VC

Angus Hordern speaks with Dr Brendan Nelson about Australia’s 101st Victoria Cross recipient, Teddy Sheean VC.

Life on the Line tracks down Australian military veterans and records their stories. Teddy Sheean received the Victoria Cross posthumously for his heroism during the sinking of HMAS Armidale on 1 December 1942. Seventy-eight years later, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II approved the award on 12 August 2020.

Dr Brendan Nelson, former Minister for Defence in the Howard Government and Director of the Australian War Memorial 2012-19, chaired the 2020 expert panel that reviewed Teddy’s case. His panel’s recommendation for Teddy to receive the VC was the last domino for this award finally being bestowed. In Dr Nelson’s second appearance on the podcast, he told Angus Hordern the story of Teddy Sheean, and exactly how his posthumous VC came about. Teddy’s story is extraordinary in its own right, as is the story of how his VC took so long to be approved, and what finally changed.

Thistle Productions have worked with Dr Nelson before. Angus Hordern interviewed him in our five-part DVD documentary series, For School and Country. On this podcast he appeared back in Season 1, 2017, when he spoke to me about his career, the Australian War Memorial and the topic of Remembrance Day, in Remembrance Day with Dr Brendan Nelson.