BSc Manch 1926, MB ChB 1929.
Sheehan was one of a Sheehan family from Carlisle who became doctors (see above). Sheehan studied medicine at the University of Manchester, achieving academic distinction with a number of prizes and medals. Sheehan did postgraduate study in Europe and spent some time in America on a Rockefeller Scholarship where he was influenced by the American style of lecturing - namely informal seminars with specialists. Sheehan was lecturer on the anatomy of the nervous system at the University of Manchester, where he was regarded as a successful and interesting lecturer. In 1937, he was appointed professor of anatomy at the Columbia University, New York, and he later became chairman of the Department of Anatomy. During the war, Sheehan was acting dean of the School of Medicine, and in this time he advocated changes in medical education to support women in the profession. He was dean of the School again from 1955 to 1960. Sheehan was a member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain, the Physiological Society of Great Britain, the American Physiological Society, the America Neurological Association and the American Anatomical Society. In 1963 Sheehan went to England to undertake a comparative survey of medical education for the New York University, of which he was professor of medical education. He died in Manchester in July 1964, aged 56.