JCB’s Lord Bamford Takes Seat in U.K.’s House of Lords

In another impressive yearend headline, JCB chairman Lord Bamford officially took his seat in the House of Lords on November 7. The House of Lords is the second chamber of the U.K. Parliament. It is independent from, and complements the work of, the elected House of Commons.

Sir Anthony Bamford was made a Life Peer in August and will now be known as Lord Bamford after taking the formal title of Baron Bamford of Daylesford in the County of Gloucestershire and of Wootton in the County of Staffordshire. Daylesford is the hamlet in Gloucester where Lord and Lady Bamford live and farm, and Wootton is the area near JCB’s World HQ in Staffordshire where Lord Bamford grew up and where JCB still has a farm.

Lord Bamford, who will mark 50 years of service with JCB in 2014, said: “Manufacturing and engineering are the areas I am focused on in my working life, and I look forward to making a contribution in these important sectors when I take up my seat in the House of Lords.”

Lord Bamford started work at JCB’s World HQ in Rocester, Staffordshire, in 1964 after a two-year engineering apprenticeship at Massey Ferguson in France. He became chairman and managing director of JCB at the end of 1975, succeeding his father, the late Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE, who founded the company on the day his son was born, October 23, 1945.

Under Lord Bamford’s leadership, JCB has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most successful construction equipment manufacturers. JCB has won more than 50 premier awards for exports, marketing, design, technology and for its care for the environment, among them 27 Queen’s Awards for Technological and Export achievement.