- Source of Wealth: Inheritance
- Full Name: Jayne Ellis
- Nationality: British
- Ethnicity: English
- Occupation: Businesswoman
Joe Bamford, the founder of the Staffordshire-based JCB industrial empire, moved to Switzerland in 1975 to live with Ellis, his former secretary. He died in 2001 and left an estate worth £200m, including homes in Switzerland and Majorca.
In his will, Joe left her the home they shared on Lake Geneva, as well as the Spanish bolthole, stocks, shares and other investments, worth £200million in all.
He also put into trust his half of the family-owned business, giving her the income from a big slice of the firm’s profits for the rest of her life.
The brothers — angry that their mother, who had helped set up the business in the post-war years, had not been left a penny by her errant husband — contested the will unsuccessfully.
Friends say Jayne was devoted to Joe and nursed him through his final illness-plagued years.