Peter Shepherd

Who was Peter Shepherd?

Peter Shepherd was a British Army doctor.

He was born at Leochel Cushnie, Aberdeenshire. In 1851, he was living at his father’s 50 acre farm Craigmill, with his parents, Peter, Mary, younger brother James, sister Mary Ann, his 19 year old cousin Peter, as well as 16 year old farm labourer John Edwards. He is listed in the census as a “scholar”. At 19, he was lodging in 37 Bonaccord Street, Old Machar, Aberdeen and studying medicine at the University.

He joined the medical service of the Army on 30 September 1864 and was sent to the Cape of Good Hope. He was quartered near Grahamstown, where he treated "Caffres as well as Europeans". His first salaries were used to pay back the friends who had supported his studies. From there, he was posted to Ireland, then India, before being forced to return home in 1872 in poor health and assigned a post at the recently opened Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich, London.

He was promoted to Surgeon Major on 30 September 1876 whilst still at Woolwich. 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 He later wrote a history of the Royal Artillery and was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. Both Shepherd and Duncan were active members of the Presbyterian Church at Woolwich. 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. It was Shepherd who first used the English term "first aid for the injured". Shepherd's last service was to prepare a manual at the request of the Central Ambulance Committee of the "Order of St John of Jerusalem in England, Ambulance Department" for use by Metropolitan Police and other ambulance classes.