Vero Precision Engineering Ltd (VPE) was a UK machine-tool manufacturing company which operated from premises at 7 South Mill Rd, Southampton SO15 4JW. The 1933 O.S. Map shows this location as Crown Works occupied by an electrical engineering company which by 1934 had been replaced by Weir Precision Engineering Ltd. Weir Precision continued their engineering operations at South Mill Rd until 1955 at which time they were taken over by High Precision Engineering Ltd - a company recently formed by Geoffrey Verdon-Roe and associates. The chairman of the new company was Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe (until his death in 1958) and managing director was his son Geoffrey Verdon-Roe. Among the names of other directors found on the VPE Letterhead were Lawrence Leech and also son Royce Verdon-Roe. To avoid confusion with another firm the company name was changed to Vero Precision Engineering Ltd. soon after incorporation - the new name following the tradition of acronyms set by Sir Alliott at A.V. Roe and Company (Avro) and Saunders-Roe Ltd (Saro). Engineering From the 1955 startup VPE progressed as a top-class machine-tool design and manufacturing company with a staff of highly qualified engineers - some being of Swiss and German origin. A small sample of the wide production range of the company includes hydraulic copy milling attachments, automatic drilling machines and camshaft milling machines - as supplied respectively to: the de Havilland Engine Company. the Aviation Division of S. Smith and Sons (England) Ltd - later part of the present Smiths Group plc. Weyburn Engineering Co Ltd, Elstead, Surrey (later acquired by Federal-Mogul Corporation). The standing of Vero Precision in the industry is demonstrated by the writing of E. T. Foulds founder of The Middlesex Group when, as a competitor in the machine-tool market, he comments that VPE had one of 'the best equipped toolrooms' in the UK. Shortly after taking over from Weir PE Ltd, VPE had commenced installation of numerical control (NC) for some of their machine tools and then, later in the 1950s, the need for the introduction of electronic control equipment was recognised. A VPE subsidiary company, Vero N.C. Developments Ltd, also trading from South Mill Rd, was incorporated in 1968 with the name changing to Vero Advanced Products Limited in 1979. This company was concerned with the supply and installation of the machine-tool output of VPE until it closed in 1999. Under new directors in 1994 the parent