Bronze Artwork Honors JCB Founder
JCB, a company that reflects its family-based heritage, recently unveiled a specially-commissioned bronze bust of Joseph Cyril Bamford, the company's founder, honoring the 100th anniversary of Bamford's birth.
Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE was born on June 21, 1916 at his family home, “The Parks,” in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Young Joseph’s playtime was spent building cars and boats – early signs of an inventive flair which would see him become one of Britain’s most celebrated engineers.
Bamford, who founded the company in a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter in October 1945, retired in 1975, handing the company to his son, Anthony. At that time, JCB was turning over more than $63 million a year and employing hundreds of people.
On June 21, Mr. JCB’s sons Lord Anthony Bamford and Mark Bamford and grandson Jo Bamford marked the 100th anniversary of his birth and his many achievements by unveiling the one-and-a-quarter-scale bronze bust at JCB’s World Headquarters in Rocester.
The bust is the work of sculptor Andrew Edwards, 52, who spent five months creating the image of Mr. Bamford in his 1960s heyday when JCB was establishing itself on the world stage.
“My father was without doubt an engineering genius and we wanted to mark the centenary of his birth and the huge contribution he made to Staffordshire and to Great Britain,” said Lord Bamford. “We are delighted with the bust, and it’s very fitting that it has been created in the county of his birth and by a sculptor whose talent was developed right here in Staffordshire.”
The bust will now be on permanent display at JCB’s World Headquarters and will be seen by the thousands of visitors who pass through the company’s doors every year.
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