Cosby Donald Philipps Smallpeice (23 March 1896 – 1977)[1] was an English engineer involved in design of precision and production lathes, and pneumatic tools and hoists.
In the year he spent recovering he taught himself technical drawing and in 1919 entered the profession as C Smallpeice, General Engineer,[4] having rented a corrugated iron shed in Sawbridgeworth with a 14-year-old lad as assistant.
There was also a precision lathe marketed under the Cromwell name, and Smallpeice continued in the development of pneumatic aids to production, and apart from premises in Mile Lane in Coventry he had a drawing office in the village of Marton.
[2] Production lathes were of key importance in the war years, however on 14 November 1940 the Smallpeice and Cromwell factories in Coventry were completely destroyed by a large air-raid.
The design was put out to tender in December 1944, and the first lathe was produced for Smallpeice Ltd by J Evans & Sons of Portsmouth in October 1945 (though at the time they were in Frome, where they had been relocated during the war).