No. 11 ROF: Official Recognition

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From the day of its opening by Sir Charles McLaren, Director-General of Royal Ordnance Factories, ROF Newport became a model of training, efficiency and production.

Throughout the war the factory had a constant stream of official visitors from national and international agencies.

The Turkish Production Mission visits ROF No. 11, 1943

"Malta’s anti-aircraft armament has recently warded off the heaviest air attack the fortress has ever known and for two months it was the guns alone which bore the brunt STOP the guns carriages and mountings have stood up to the job magnificently and during this period no single instance of failure has been recorded STOP the performance of the ammunition too has left nothing to be desired and failures have been very few and far between”

- Telegram from General the Viscount Gort, Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Malta,
30th July 1942

“Mr Mealand, Department of Munitions, Australia, told me he had visited 83 factories in this country and in his opinion the ROF Newport and the ROF Cardiff were the best factories he had seen.”

“I can well remember a visit paid to the Factory by Sir Charles McLaren, Director-General of Royal Ordnance Factories, accompanied by four important industrialists who, until they went through the Factory, were very sceptical of the results which the Director General told them had been obtained.

However on their return the leader of the delegation remarked to me that he did not know what the engineers of this country were going to do with me after the war, because I had ‘de-engineered engineering’, and it would never go back.”

Ernest Bevin MP samples canteen fare during a visit to ROF No. 11, 1944

“I was very much impressed by the work that was going on there.”
- Ernest Bevin MP, 1944