In 1878, Surgeon-Major Shepherd, together with Colonel Francis Duncan established the concept of teaching first aid skills to civilians.

Duncan was a fellow graduate of Aberdeen University, a career artillery officer and a deeply religious man with high humanitarian values who strongly supported the principle of battlefield ambulance transport[6] He later wrote a history of the Royal Artillery and was elected to Parliament as a Conservative.

Shepherd, together with a Dr Coleman, conducted the first class in the hall of the Presbyterian school in Woolwich using a comprehensive first aid curriculum that he had developed.

Dr (later Lieutenant General Sir) James Cantlie, another graduate of Aberdeen University, later published Shepherd's lesson notes from that course as "First Aid to the Injured".

Surgeon Major Shepherd attempted to move a wagon of wounded troops back to Rorke's Drift.

[10] A memorial brass was placed on the wall of the Royal Victoria Hospital Chapel at Netley with the inscription "In memory of Peter Shepherd, M.B., University of Aberdeen, Surgeon-Major Her Majesty's Army; born at Leochel Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, 25 August 1841; who sacrificed his own life at the battle of Isandhlwane, Zululand, 22 January 1879, in the endeavour to save the life of a wounded comrade.