Frederick Geoffrey Shedden was born on 8 August 1893 in Kyneton, Victoria and was educated at Kyneton Grammar School. In 1910 he commenced as a junior clerk in the Department of Defence, Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. During World War I he served overseas from 1917 to 1920 with the Australian Imperial Forces as a Lieutenant in the Australian Army Pay Corps. He returned to work in the Department of Defence in 1920.
 
From 1924 to 1929 he served as a military accountant in the
Department of Defence while studying part-time for a Bachelor of Commerce degree. In 1928 he was sent to London to study defence administration, financial administration and higher defence policy at the Imperial Defence College. While in London he attended lecture courses at the London School of Economics, University of London, on the machinery of government and public finance. In 1929 he was attached to the War Office to study financial administration. On his return to Australia in 1932 he was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Melbourne University. He returned to the Department of Defence to serve as secretary and advisor to several important committees. He was appointed First Assistant Secretary in 1936 and was made Secretary of the Department of Defence in November 1937.  During the war, the functions of this agency changed. From 1939 to 1942, therefore, Shedden was Secretary of the Department of Defence Co-ordination. In 1942 he was once again Secretary for the
Department of Defence.
 
During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s Shedden travelled extensively overseas. He was attached to the Secretariat of the Disarmament Conference in 1932 and the British Cabinet Office and Committee of Imperial Defence from 1932 to 1933. He travelled with the delegation to the World Economic Conference in 1933 and the Defence Conference in Wellington, New Zealand in 1934. He was an advisor to the
delegation to the Imperial Conference in 1937. Shedden accompanied the Prime Minister on all major journeys overseas in 1941, 1944, 1946, 1951 and 1955. In 1949 he travelled to the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada for defence discussions and he attended the ANZUS Council in 1952.
 
Shedden became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1933 and was created a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in 1941 and a Knight Commander of the Order in 1943.  
Sir Frederick retired from the Department of Defence in 1956 and began writing a history of Australian Defence Policy. The manuscript was left unfinished and unpublished at his death on 8 July 1971.  


Sources
 
J P Buckley, "Sir Frederick Shedden, KCMG, OBE, Defence Strategist, Administrator and Public Servant", Defence Force Journal, No 50, January/February 1985, pp 21-49
 
Warren Perry, "Sir Frederick Shedden, 1893-1971: An Appreciation", The Victorian Historical Magazine, Vol 42, No 3, August 1971, pp 632-637.
 
Who's Who in Australia, 1938, 1947, 1959, 1968