Joseph Cyril Bamford
Joseph Cyril Bamford, agricultural engineer and businessman.
1916 Born in Uttoxeter, son of Cyril Joseph Bamford
After education at St John's School, Alton, and Stonyhurst College, he worked as a trainee for several engineering companies, including Alfred Herbert
1936 Entered the family firm, Henry Bamford and Sons.
1940 Joined the Royal Air Force, but was seconded to the Ministry of Supply, and spent part of the war in the Gold Coast helping to source bauxite for the war effort. He also spent a year in Stafford developing welding equipment for English Electric.
1942 Married Marjorie Griffin; registered in Cheadle[1]. They had two sons.
1945 Bamford rejoined the family firm but did not find it easy to work in a subordinate capacity. He soon decided to set up his own business. At the end of 1945 he rented a small workshop in Uttoxeter, bought a second-hand electric welder, and built his first product, a farm trailer, largely out of scrap steel collected from old air-raid shelters - see J. C. Bamford Excavators (JCB)
c.1947 Moved to larger premises and began making tipping trailers for commercial vehicles
1948 Addressed the agricultural market with a two-wheeled hydraulic tipping trailer, designed to be bolted on to a Ford tractor; several thousand versions of this machine, the Major Loader, were sold in the UK and continental Europe.
1948 gained Royal Aero Club Aviator's certificate at Derby
1950 Acquired a disused cheese factory at Rocester to cope with the demand for his products. Over the next twenty years Rocester became one of the best-equipped factories in the country.
1960 An engineer director, returned from South Africa[2]
1967 Launched a take-over bid for the old family firm, Henry Bamford and Sons, but was unsuccessful.
1960s As the leading British-owned firm in the construction equipment field, it was natural for the IRC to look to Bamfords to lead consolidation in the industry but Joseph resisted this, because it would have meant giving up the private company status of the firm.
1969 Appointed CBE, having achieved the remarkable feat, rare in the British engineering industry, of building a world-leading position in an industry dominated by much larger American and Japanese manufacturers.
1975 Retired from the business; succeeded by his son, Anthony. The company employed about 2000 workers and was one of the largest privately owned firms in the country.
2001 Died in London[3].
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Joseph Cyril Bamford, ODNB