Joseph Cyril Bamford

Founder / JCB Inc. / 1916 - 2001 / Inducted 1993

In Europe, an enterprising young man, Joseph Cyril Bamford, armed with basic welding and engineering skills, set up a small garage-based business manufacturing trailers from surplus war materials.

Soon after his trailers were successful, "JCB" as he is generally known, began to apply the technology of hydraulics to loaders, which led to the concept of the backhoe-loader in 1954.

Bamford had a flair for identifying unusual solutions to problems and marketing them to users. The founder JCB Inc., Bamford is recognized as leading pioneer in the backhoe-loader concept in Europe. He is also credited with the widespread application of hydraulic technology in construction and agricultural equipment.