News story

Reporting for duty – a centenary of defence operations at Porton Down

On 7 March 1916, Sergeant Major Dobbs of the Royal Engineers reported for duty at Porton Down.

King George V visited Porton Down in 1918

He was the first person to carry out defence operations at the site which was bought in response to the first use of chemical weapons in 1915.

Since then, the work at Porton Down has developed and evolved, with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) now present on the 7000 acres of defence-owned property.

The Dstl100 timeline (PDF, 5.36 MB, 1 page) commemorates a century of groundbreaking work at Porton Down.

Dstl100 - the first 50 years
Dstl100 - the last 50 years
Published 7 March 2016