Joseph Bamford could shoot, fish, swim, and sail. Bamford paid more than fair wages, which rose regularly, and annual bonuses based on reports of individual worth. In 1967 Bamford stood on a farm cart and handed out personal cheques totalling £250,000. This extraordinary focus in return gave unprecedented levels of workforce flexibility, with the average JCB employee through the strike-dominated 1970s and early 1980s being seven times more productive than the average British manufacturing worker. In 1975 Bamford and his wife Marjorie (née Griffin – married 1941) handed over the business to their two sons, and retired to Switzerland as tax exiles.
Harry Bamford (footballer, born 1886) based at Tipperary in August 1914, as part of the 16th Battalion of the 6th Division. They mobilised for war a month later and landed at St. Nazaire, France on 10 September. Bamford was badly wounded during skirmishes at Proven in the Ypres salient in November 1915, and died of septicaemia in No. 1 Red Cross Hospital, at Étaples. Bamford held the rank of Second Lieutenant and was awarded the 1914-15 Star, Victory and British War Medals. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records show he was the son of Annie Bamford, of 5, Cliff Road, Itchen, Southampton, and the late