JOSEPH Arthur Lawrence Price, known by everyone as Joe, was born in Leicester, the first of four children to Joe Senior and Dorothy, in 1928. Following a family tradition which had lasted six generations where the first boy was called Joseph, within the family Joe was referred to as Joe Junior and his father as Joe Senior.

The family moved to Box in 1936, where Joe Senior initially managed Box Rubber Mills. Joe learnt the discipline of work very early when his father put him to work in his spare time and on holidays, working for a local farm.

He passed his 11 plus exams and went to Chippenham Grammar School and matriculated.

A spell as a laboratory assistant at the then Bath Rubber factory (later known as Peradin Rubber) followed. In his teenage wanderings around Bath, he met Pam and they took up ballroom dancing, becoming so good that they entered dancing competitions. Pam’s sister, Gaye Biffen, was a national competitor in ballroom dancing.

Called up for National Service, Joe was promoted to the rank of an officer but, to his chagrin, rather than going abroad and fighting, he was lumbered with the job of doling out soldier’s pay every week. After demob from the army he married Pam and returned to Leicester to work as an assistant manager in yet another rubber company (making corset buttons this time). In due course, they had two boys, Laurence and Anthony.

Joe Senior, by then was running his own company J Price (Bath) Ltd but, having been badly burned in a fire at the factory, called back Joe Junior to run the factory in Box.

Perhaps the greatest sadness of his life occurred whilst on holiday in Devon, when his youngest son Anthony ate hemlock and subsequently died, a grief that was relieved in part by the later birth of his daughters Debbie and Joanne.

While still managing the factory in Box, he started a small company in Camden, Bath, and appointed his first employee, Ken Long.

The company moved in the early 1960s to their present premises in the Leafield Industrial Estate at Potley, and the workforce grew to over 200. Another division in the Czech Republic increased this still further. His habit of giving fresh cream cakes to everyone on his birthday had by now extended to prodigious proportions, and was just another of the many traits much admired by those who worked with him.

He started playing badminton in his thirties, later moving on to tennis. His claim to fame was playing tennis at Wimbledon in the Seniors’ matches. Latterly, he developed a love of golf but still worked as hard as ever developing and growing the company.

In 1975, he met Suzy, and gained two more sons after marrying her, Anthony and Simon. In 2000, the family sold the PCR Group of Companies and he planned to retire, however being the person he was, could not stop working and, with his stepson Anthony, built up yet another company, Anka Metal Coatings.

Unlike many people in later years, gardening did not hold much interest for Joe. He preferred golf and skiing as an important part of his life. However, at 88 years, his hip became so painful it stopped his skiing and golfing trips with friends (and his 86-year-old brother, Derek) and made walking unpleasant. After much research, he made the decision to undergo a hip replacement, a difficult operation, especially so at his age.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to go right and he died of widespread infection on September 18, surrounded by his family, three weeks after the operation.

A most respected and cared for member of the community, he is greatly missed by all of his family and friends.