The wounded officer was one Lieutenant Dyneley, the Adjutant of Shields' own unit in the Royal Welch Fusiliers regiment.

He had been shot and wounded near the Redan, a fort built close to Sevastopol, at this time it had been hastily occupied by more than a dozen Russian soldiers.

It was an extremely dangerous and foolhardy thing to venture anywhere close to the Redan, as they would be well within range of all manner of enemy guns.

Sylvester dressed Dyneley's wounds as well as he was able while under heavy fire from the Redan and returned to the cover of their trenches, bringing with them the injured man.

Later, after being posted to India at the end of the war, Robert Shields died in Bombay of complications from alcoholism on 23 December 1864.