Dr Oswald John Silberrad, English chemist, 1902-1906.

Photographic portrait of Silberrad (1878-1960) taken when at the Chemical Research Establishment, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. In 1901 he was appointed chemist to the newly-formed Explosives Committee of the War Office at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. An establishment which needed to solve the problems relating to certain weaknesses in British munitions, revealed by failures during the Boer war, in particular the non-detonation of high explosive shells.