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BIOGRAPHY PAGE
   

 

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, UK on November 15th,1890. 'Ray' as she became known to her family and freinds,was the second child of a clergyman schoolmaster, Edward Lamburn and his wife Clara. Richmal had a sister, Gwen, who was 17 months older then herself and Jack who was born in 1893.There was another sister, Phyllis, born in 1894 who sadly died of whooping cough at just 14 months old.

She attended St Elphin's boarding school, in 1901, when she was eleven. After this,in 1911,she went to Royal Holloway College on a scholarship and then, in 1914 became a classics mistress at her old school St Elphin's and then at Bromley High School.

In the summer of 1923 she had a serious attack of Polio. There was no immunization against this dreaded disease in the 1920's which nearly always left the sufferer with some degree of disablement.Unfortunatly Richmal was no exception and lost the use of her right leg, which remained immobile for the rest of her life.As a result, she had to give up her teaching career. She then concentrated on being a full time writer.

William came to life in 1919 in a story called Rice Mould which was published in the Home Magzine in that year. The rest - as they say, is history!!

He became so popular in the magazine that Newnes, decided to publish William in book form. The first book -Just William was published in 1922.Richmal Crompton then went on to publish another 37 William books, all of which were eagerly devoured by her enthusiastic fans.

Since then he has appeared on the radio, in films, on T.V. and now on video, cassette tapes and audio CD's!!