"You will Be Fine Man!"

Surgeon Reynolds Attending Commissary Dalton's Wounds, 1879.

Both Surgeon Reynolds and Commissary Dalton were awarded the Victoria cross for their actions during the defense of Rorkes Drift. Reynolds, a Surgeon in the Army Medical Department was awarded for: For the conspicuous bravery, during the attack at Rorkes Drift on the 22nd and 23rd January, 1879, which he exhibited in his constant attention to the wounded under fire, and in his voluntarily conveying ammunition from the store to the defenders of the Hospital, whereby he exposed himself to a cross-fire from the enemy both in going and returning. Commissary Dalton received his award in 1880 and it read: For his conspicuous gallantry during the attack on Rorkes Drift post by the Zulus on the night of the 22nd January 1879, when he actively superintended the work of the defence, and was amongst the foremost of those who received the first attack at the corner of the hospital, where the deadliness of his fire did great execution, and the mad rush of the Zulus met with its first check, and where, by his cool courage, he saved the life of a man of the Army Hospital Corps, by shooting the Zulu who having seized the muzzle of the mans rifle, was in the act of assegaing him. This officer, to whose energy much of the defence of the place was due, was severely wounded during the contest, but still continued to give the same example of cool courage.