Founder of JCB business empire dies

Joseph Bamford, the founder of the JCB excavator company, has died at the age of 84.

A spokesman said Mr Bamford, who had been ill for some time, died in a London hospital at 1.05am.

Joseph Cyril Bamford started the business which bore his initials in 1945, and was one of Britain's most successful industrialists.

JCB now has a global market in heavy plant and agricultural machinery, exporting 72% of it products to 140 territories around the world.

Mr Bamford's family still owns the firm, which he started by making a tipping trailer in a rented lock-up garage in Uttoxeter.

He retired in late 1975 to live overseas.

The garage in which the business began was demolished in 1969, but Mr Bamford's son Sir Anthony Bamford - the current chairman and managing director - had a replica built alongside the sports and social club at JCB's headquarters at Rocester, Staffordshire.