He was educated at Eton College and at New College, Oxford, where in 1910 he gained a half blue in polo winning 10–2 against Cambridge. He served as Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. He fought in World War I and was twice mentioned in despatches. He served in the Quartermaster-General's staff and in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and was a Major in the Royal North Devon Yeomanry. He served as a Justice of the Peace for Devon and held the honorary office of High Steward of South Molton, near his seat of North Molton.
He was Master of the Dulverton Foxhounds, Somerset, whose territory covered his North Molton estate, between 1920 and 1963. The fox-hunting season always commenced with a meet at Court House, his home, but he was strict to ensure that no hunting commenced before his tenant farmers had harvested their wheat, so as not to damage the crop. Today the Dulverton Foxhounds continue to hold the popular annual Boxing Day meet at the Poltimore Arms, Yarde Down, and their New Year's Day meet at the Poltimore Inn on North Molton Square, near Court House
1930's Agricultural Depression
During the Depression of 1930s his agricultural tenants at North Molton struggled to pay their rents, and Lord Poltimore displayed his own austerity at that time by wearing patched up breeches rather than buying new ones.
Marriages and children
He married twice:
Firstly in 1910 to Cynthia Rachel Lascelles, daughter of Hon. Gerald William Lascelles by his wife Constance Augusta Mary Fitz Clarence Phillipson, a younger son of the Earl of Harewood. She is remembered by North Molton residents as having hired buses to take the local children to Woollacombe Beach in the summer and to pantomimes in Exeter at Christmas. By her he had children:
. The memorial stone bench to his father the 4th Baron Poltimore sits at the base of the large tree. The roof of an outbuilding of Court House, the Bampfyldes' manor house, is visible behind the garden
*Hon. John de Grey Warwick Bampfylde, only son and heir apparent, an officer in the Royal Horseguards, who predeceased his father, having died aged 23 in a horse-racing accident shortly after his return from representing his country at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games in the fencing team. His death caused his father to lose heart and prompted him to emigrate to Rhodesia and to abandon his North Molton estate. A memorial black and whitephotographic portrait of his son in full military dress exists in the Bampfylde Chapel of North Molton Church. The Bampfylde Memorial Garden in North Molton churchyard was created in his memory, being a walled and sunken lawned garden, in the centre of which stands his gravestone inscribed as follows:
Secondly in 1962 to Barbara Pitcairn Nicol, daughter of Peter Nicol of Kirkintilloch, Scotland.
Emigration to Rhodesia
Following the accidental death in 1936 of his only son and heir apparent, he lost heart and further prompted by poor health and arthritis and by the victory of the socialist Labour Government under Clement Attlee, after World War II he sold most of the 5,000 acre North Molton estate, owned by his family for about 400 years, and moved to Rhodesia in Africa, where he lived the rest of his life on his estate of Benwell, near Bindura. He sold about 2/3rds of the North Molton estate and its many farmsteads to his tenant farmers. He never returned to England, and it was said that on his departure from North Molton the rooks deserted Bampfylde Clump, a landmark clump of beech trees on his estate planted by his ancestors.
Death and burial
He died on 13 July 1965 at age 82 and was buried at Benwell, Southern Rhodesia, Africa. A memorial stone bench exists in the Bampfylde Memorial Garden created for his son in North Molton churchyard, next to Court House, his manor house, to which is affixed a tablet inscribed:
Landholdings
In 1920 he sold the Poltimore estate but the house and grounds failed to find a buyer. The house was let to Poltimore College, a girls' school which closed in 1939. In 1940 the boys from Dover College were evacuated to Poltimore House, which became a private hospital in 1945 which was taken over by the National Health Service when it came into existence in 1948. It closed as a hospital in 1974. Soon after the accidental death in 1936 of his only son and heir apparent, he also sold most of the North Molton estate and moved to Rhodesia in Africa. In 1968 his widow's residence was Benwell, Bindura, Rhodesia. The remnant of the North Molton estate, about a third of his former holding, including Court House, the manor house, he gave to his daughter Hon. Sheila Margaret Warwick Bampfylde, the wife of Sir Dennis Stucley, 5th Baronet of Affeton Castle and Hartland Abbey in Devon. Sir Dennis Stucley, a keen sportsman, made Court House at North Molton his preferred residence due to the renowned pheasant shoot which had been established by the Bampfyldes, which he further developed. Today his descendants operate the shoot on a commercial basis and reside at Court House and on other properties on the estate.
