10/12/2025
Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969), author, lived at Bromley Common for many years, later moving to Chislehurst.
She was best known for her hugely popular Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. She never married and had no children although she was aunt and great-aunt to members of her family.
History
Richmal Crompton was born in Bury, Lancashire, the second child of the Rev. Edward John Sewell Lamburn, a Classics master at Bury Grammar School and his wife Clara (née Crompton).
In order to further her initial chosen career as a schoolteacher, she won a scholarship to Royal Holloway College, part of the University of London in Englefield Green, Surrey. Crompton graduated in 1914 with a BA honours degree in Classics (II class). She took part in the Women's Suffrage movement.
In 1914, she returned to St Elphin’s as a Classics mistress and later, at age 27, moved to Bromley High School where she began her writing. Having contracted poliomyelitis, she was left without the use of her right leg in 1923. She gave up her teaching career and began to write full-time.
Her Just William stories and her other literature were so successful that she was soon able to afford to buy a house (The Glebe) built in Bromley Common for herself and her mother Clara.
