Timeline of Met history

1796 Marine Police founded at Wapping to police trade on the Thames (now known as the Marine Support Unit).

1829 Sir Robert Peel forms the Metropolitan Police under two Commissioners and divided geographically into seventeen divisions.

1830 Murder of Joseph Grantham in Somers Town, first Met officer killed on duty

1839 The Met’s radius from Charing Cross expanded from a seven mile radius from Charing Cross to fifteen miles; Marine Police merged into the Met as Thames Division.

1842 The Met forms a Detective Branch.

1860 The Met sets up five dockyard divisions to police Woolwich Arsenal and naval dockyards in the rest of the UK; the last one is only abolished in 1934.

1863 Uniform top hats replaced by helmets and tailcoats by tunics.

1869 Divisions grouped into Districts (similar to today's Areas).

1878 Criminal Investigation Department formed to replace the disgraced Detective Branch.

1883 Special Irish Branch formed to counter Irish nationalist terrorism; it drops the 'Irish' in its name five years later as it expands to anarchists and other groups.

1884 Whistles replace rattles as part of officer's standard equipment.

1888 ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders in east London.

1901 Fingerprint Bureau founded by Sir Edward Henry, Assistant Commissioner (Crime) and later Commissioner.

1909 King's Police Medal established in the wake of the death of PC William Tyler's murder by anarchists during the 'Tottenham Outrage'.

1918 Formation of the ‘Flying Squad’.

1919 First female Met officers go on patrol but are without the power of arrest until 1923.

1925 Harry Daley joins the Met, the first known openly gay male officer.

1928 Met starts introducing police boxes (now better known as the TARDIS in Doctor Who); they last until personal radios are introduced in 1965.

1944 WPC Bertha Gleghorn killed by a V1 rocket, the first female officer killed on duty.

1947 Alberta Watts, a Woman Detective Constable, becomes the first female officer to be awarded the King's Police Medal for Gallantry.

1945 Harold Scott appointed Commissioner, one of only two ever not to have had a police or army background.

1958 Joseph Simpson appointed Commissioner, the first to have risen from PC.

1967 Norwell Roberts appointed the first post-Windrush Black male officer in the Met, followed by Sislin Fay Allen (the first female Black officer) in 1968.

1972 Separate branch for female officers abolished; they are instead incorporated into the main body of the Met and allowed to apply for several specialisms such as the Dog Unit and Mounted Branch.

1986 Last of six complete changes of uniform for female officers.

1987 Formation of the Territorial Support Group, replacing the Special Patrol Group in its role policing demonstrations and riots.

1990 'Woman' prefix on ranks abolished.

1991 First female firearms officers.

2000 171-year-old staff post of Receiver renamed Director of Resources.

2002 Hijabs allowed as part of women's uniform.

2005 Met responds to the 7^th July terrorist attacks.

2017 Cressida Dick appointed Commissioner, the first woman and the first openly-LGBT person in that post.

2023 The Met polices the coronation of King Charles III, its seventh in almost two-hundred years.

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