There seems to be a lot of investigation in to this on the web, but I found the solution eventually.
I use this to centre thumbnails that have not been squared off but cropped to fit in a square.
The trick was to use span.
This code should work:
<td width=50 height=50 style='text-align:center vertical-align:middle;'>
<img src='blah.jpg'>
</td>
but it doesn't work.
You need to do:
<td width=50 height=50 style='text-align:center vertical-align:middle;'>
<span style='display:inline-block;'>
<img src='blah.jpg'>
</span>
</td>
I hope that helps someone else.