Richmal Crompton
Richmal Crompton-Lamburn, born on November 15, 1890, in Bury, Lancashire, England, was a notable English author best known for her beloved children's series featuring the character William Brown. Raised in a family with literary and educational connections, she began writing stories and poems in her childhood and later pursued formal education, winning a scholarship to Royal Holloway College. After graduating in 1914, she taught Greek and Latin before transitioning to writing full-time following a health setback caused by polio.
Crompton's first William story, "Just William," was published in 1919, and it quickly gained popularity, leading to a series of thirty-eight books that collectively sold over twelve million copies. The character William, inspired by her brother Jack, is a mischievous eleven-year-old boy navigating life in a typical English village. In addition to the William series, Crompton authored stories for children and adults and is remembered for her wit and keen observations of childhood. Despite her success, she regarded her adult novels as her finest work, although they are less recognized today. Richmal Crompton passed away on January 11, 1969, leaving a legacy that continues to resonate with readers.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Richmal Crompton
Writer
- Born: November 15, 1890
- Birthplace: Bury, Lancashire, England
- Died: January 11, 1969
- Place of death: Chislehurst, Kent, England
Biography
Richmal Crompton-Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, England, on November 15, 1890. Her parents were the Reverend Edward John Sewell Lamburn, a teacher at Bury Grammar School, and Clara Crompton Lamburn. Richmal had one older sister Gwen, one younger brother Jack, who became a writer under the name of John Lambourne, and a younger sister Phyllis, who died of whooping cough at the age of fourteen months. Her unusual first name was a tradition in her mother’s family dating to the early eighteenth century, and her family and friends called her “Ray.”
Crompton kept a diary and began writing stories and poems while she was still a child. In 1901, she entered St. Elphin’s, a boarding school for daughters of clergymen, in Warrington, Lancashire. The school supposedly had a resident ghost, but the building was condemned so the school moved to Darby Dale, Derbyshire in 1904. She won a scholarship in 1911 to Royal Holloway College in Surrey, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Greek and Latin. After graduating in 1914, she returned to St. Elphin’s to teach those subjects.
By 1915, she was teaching at Bromley High School for Girls and had begun to write short stories for magazines under her mother’s maiden name. Her first sale took place in 1918 to the periodical The Girl’s Own Paper. The first William story, “Just William,” appeared in The Ladies Home Journal in 1919. It was so popular that she wrote eleven more William stores, which were collected in Just William, the first of thirty-eight William books, in 1922. The title character is an eleven year old boy named William Brown, who lives with his middle-class family in a typical English village. He originally was based on her brother Jack, who helped her with the plots. In the later stories, Crompton used incidents from the lives of her nephew and grand-nephew. The series sold more than twelve million copies, and William appeared on the radio and television and in plays and films. One of the many writers inspired by the series was fantasy author Michael Moorcock.
Crompton became a full-time writer in 1923 when polio caused her to lose the use of her right leg. She also wrote a series of children’s stories about a boy named Jimmy, stories about a girl named Patricia, and forty-one books for adults. She referred to William as her “Frankenstein’s Monster” and considered the adult books her best work, but these are now forgotten. She lived for many years in Bromley, Kent near her married sister, never married, and died of a heart attack on January 11, 1969, in Chislehurst, Kent.