English Automobiles (Royce, Bently, Rover, MG, etc.) standard for mechanical wrench, die bolts nuts etc., sizes was the "Whitworth."
They switched from the Whitworth to the Metric system somewhere around mid 60's.
An example, the Whitworth 5/16W is 11/32 wrench, 3/4W is a 25/32 wrench, a...