NAME:  Albert Edward SHEEHAN                                                                                                     

SERVICE NO:  494

YEAR OF BIRTH:  1894

PLACE OF BIRTH:  Macarthur

DATE OF ENLISTMENT: 12 September 1914

PLACE OF ENLISTMENT:  Hamilton

AGE AT ENLISTMENT:  20

UNIT: 14th Battalion, D Company

EMBARKED:  22 December 1914

TROOP SHIP:  HMAT A38 Ulysses

FATE:  Killed in Action, 8 August 1915, Hill 971, Gallipoli, Turkey.

Born in Macarthur in 1894, Albert Edward Sheehan was one of ten children born to Dennis Sheehan and Clara Jessica Malkin.  Of six boys and four boys, he was among the younger children of the family.  During the 1890s, Dennis Sheehan worked as a mining contractor and in 1899 was at the Bar One Mine, Dargo near Omeo.  He was blasting in the mine on 26 September when a stone flew up and hit Dennis in the temple. He was dead by the time he reached the surface.   Albert was five.

Albert went to school in Macarthur but later moved to Hamilton and was living with his sister in Lonsdale Street and working as a baker.  That’s where he resided when his mother Clara passed away on 2 July, 1914. Clara was spared the knowledge that her six boys would all enlist in a war that was about to break. Two of the boys were rejected and four  accepted, including Albert on 12 September 1914.  Albert went with the 14th Battalion, D Company on 22 December 1914 to Egypt.

Albert was at the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and in the three weeks after he was involved in heavy fighting which he described in a letter home:

An interesting letter has been received by a friend from Private Albert Sheehan, the second boy to volunteer from Macarthur. It was written from Gallipoli in May, and stated that he had been in the firing line for three weeks without receiving a scratch. He added that he was enjoying the life, although he had witnessed sights that would never be effaced from his memory. (Hamilton Spectator, 29 July 1915)

 By the start of August 1915, there were just three men left in a tent once sleeping thirteen, including Albert and two other Hamilton men, Arthur Lewis and Claude ‘Dot’ Douglas.  That would soon change after the 14th Battalion’s role in the Battle of Hill 971 on 8 August 1915.  Albert was reported missing and after an inquiry it was determined he was killed.  A friend from Hamilton, John Mills of Clarke Street provided evidence for the inquiry.

It was a month before family at home learned of Albert’s death and the news was published in the Hamilton Spectator on 6 February 1915.

A tree was planted for Albert Sheehan along Hamilton’s Anzac Avenue.  He is also listed on the Macarthur and District Honour Roll and Macarthur War Memorial.

 

ONLINE RESOURCES

Australian War Memorial – Attack on Hill 971

Australian War Memorial – Red Cross Wounded and Missing – Albert Edward Sheehan

Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour – Albert Edward Sheehan

Australian War Memorial – WW1 Embarkation Rolls – Albert Edward Sheehan

Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Lone Pine Memorial – Albert Edward Sheehan

Discovering Anzacs – WW1 Service Record – Albert Edward Sheehan

Newspaper articles at Trove – Albert Edward Sheehan

The AIF Project – Albert Edward Sheehan