In 1852 at the age of 19, he purchased a commission in a cavalry regiment in the British Army, the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own).

[2] Dunn was six feet, three inches tall, and commissioned a special four foot long sabre from Wilkinson Sword to accommodate his height.

[3][4] Dunn was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, when he was 21 years of age.

Lieutenant Dunn was actively engaged in the battle, leading his troops in the futile attempts to capture the Russian artillery.

Dunn then noticed that another soldier from his troop, Private Harvey Levett, had been dismounted and was being attacked by a Russian hussar.

The award was available for events from 1854 onwards, to include acts of bravery during the Crimean War, which began in late 1853.

[6] After the war, it was announced that the 11th Hussars could nominate a soldier to receive the Victoria Cross for his bravery.

[9][4] Dunn sold his commission at the end of the Crimean War, having conducted an affair with the wife of a fellow officer.

[3] He returned to Canada in 1856, where he initially ran his family's estate, north of Toronto, and joined a local Masonic lodge.

When the 100th Regiment was leaving for Britain, Dunn was presented with a sword which had been recently found on the Plains of Abraham, and was thought to have belonged to General Wolfe.

A British soldier, leading a patrol of Eritrean Mounted Police, came across a grown-over cemetery, but found that one gravesite had been cleaned and tended recently.

Soldiers of the occupying Italian forces had tended the grave, even though they were at war with the Canadian and British armies.

[3][9] Half a century later, the grave was re-discovered by Canadian peacekeeping soldiers, who were part of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea during the Eritrean–Ethiopian War of 1998–2000.

Ben Mitchell of the Canadian Armed Forces gave his account of the re-discovery: We had just advanced from our rear camp in Dekemhare into Senafe.

The kids had led us to the grave of a Canadian war hero R. Dunn, one of the first winners of the Victoria Cross.

These kids whom we thought were leading us into an ambush had done Canada a great service and located Colonel R. Dunn Victoria Cross.

If those kids were not as persistent as they were we would never have followed them and we would have never found Colonel Dunn.After the re-discovery of the grave, a group of Canadian Forces engineers from CFB Gagetown repaired it in 2001.

The federal government authorised Sir Charles Tupper, the Canadian High Commissioner to Britain, to buy the medals.

[3][9] In 2006, Upper Canada College placed the medals on loan to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.