The series consists of ten (10) “line a day” or “five year” diaries and two (2) scrapbooks created by William Blackley Stanley Bamford between the years 1921-1966, reflecting his professional life as a banker with the Bank of Montreal, as well as his personal and family life. Bamford’s diaries document many aspects of his professional and personal life. Entries dealing with work life include information about time spent in the office; volume of work and work completed; a leave of absence taken; and transfers between branches, among other topics. Entries related to personal life cover marriage and raising a son; church attendance, services, and volunteer efforts; leisure and recreational activities; purchases and subscriptions; banking and financial information and transactions; voting habits; household and garden chores and repairs; personal and family health issues and deaths; moves, real estate transactions, and construction; organizational memberships and responsibilities; and family pets, among other topics. The diaries also include information of general interest, such as weather; local, regional, and world news updates, including war news; election results; and sporting results. As a career banker, Bamford made particular note of bank robberies in the news. Bamford also made a number of memoranda in the diaries, making note of insurance policy, bank account, and safety deposit box numbers; income tax figures; safe combinations; motorcycle and bicycle models and license numbers; planting diagrams; poems; transcriptions of correspondence; home remedy recipes; phone numbers and addresses; his son’s platoon number and rank; employment start date, salary, and bonuses from the Bank of Montreal; phone numbers and addresses; and birthdates. The diaries in the series begin when Bamford was residing in Toronto, and continue through a year’s leave from the Bank of Montreal, which he spent in Nelson, British Columbia, and a subsequent move to Vancouver.

Scrapbooks in the series contain newspaper clippings related to Canadian and American news, politics, society, and history; the United Empire Loyalist Association and the British royal family; deaths of note; church and religious matters; poems and pictures; and articles of general interest. Scrapbooks also contain business and personal correspondence, photographs, and ephemera related to Bamford as well as his wife and son, including various programs, tickets, and invitations; visiting cards; cheques; ribbons; membership cards; certificates and licences; menus; informational brochures and pamphlets; receipts; and other material.

The fonds consists of diaries, scrapbooks, and correspondence spanning the period 1910-2003 and related to the professional and personal lives of three generations of the Bamford family—William Blackley Bamford, his son William Blackley Stanley Bamford, and his grandson William Huestis Bamford—as well as to members of the Lasell and Ord families, related by marriage to William Huestis Bamford. Diaries in the fonds include concise “five year” or “line a day” diaries, as well as more detailed daily journals and many cover aspects of the Bamfords’ professional and personal life.

Scrapbooks in the fonds, which contain newspaper clippings, ephemera, correspondence, photographs, notes, and other material, primarily reflect the Bamfords’ personal interests, but also interests their chosen professions and employers, including the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the Bank of Montreal. Beyond the incoming and outgoing personal and professional correspondence included in the scrapbooks, the Esther Adelina Lasell Bamford series contains incoming correspondence related to a branch of the Ord family living in New Zealand.

The fonds is arranged into four series by family member: William Blackley Bamford; William Blackley Stanley Bamford; William Huestis Bamford; and Esther Adelina Lasell Bamford.