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Richmal Lamburn as a 14-year-old, the age at which she moved to a school in Derbyshire

The pseudonymous Richmal Crompton in 1929, after her 'William' books had become a great success

The boy himself - William Brown, better-known as 'Just William', earned his creator Richmal Crompton her thoroughly deserved success

The writer Richmal Crompton (1890-1969) - female, not male, as she is often mistakenly imagined - is one of a special group of 'Famous Residents' whose Derbyshire links arose through attending boarding school in the county. Many such pupils retained a particular affection for Derbyshire for this very reason, despite never having had a family home there.

Richmal Crompton (a pseudonym adapted from her birth name) was a prolific writer of both childrens' stories and adult novels, best-known for her creation of the loveable but anarchic schoolboy William Brown. He is more universally known as 'Just William', which was the title of the first book he featured in.

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born on 15 November 1890 in Bury, Lancashire, the second child of the Reverend Edward Lamburn and his wife Clara (nee Crompton). When she was eleven Richmal was sent to a school in Warrington, 'St. Elphin's School for the Daughters of Clergy', named after the local parish church.

Three years later, a curious turn of fate led to Richmal's introduction to Derbyshire after the Warrington premises were declared 'unfit' by health inspectors. In consequence, pupils and staff decamped en masse to much healthier surroundings in Darley Dale, near Matlock, the new school soon adopting the name St. Elphin's under which it long flourished.

Richmal was both a pupil and 'pupil-teacher' there from 1904 to 1911, a period in which she enjoyed some of the happiest and most carefree days of her life. She returned to Darley Dale in 1914, after gaining a degree, to spend a further three more years as St. Elphin's likeable Classics mistress.

It was during her time as a pupil at St. Elphin's that Richmal first began to write with serious intent. She was a prolific contributor to the St. Elphin's School Magazine and experienced the thrill of having her first short stories accepted by a commercial magazine publisher.

Her most famous creation William Brown arguably has Derbyshire blood in his veins, since the idea for the harum-scarum schoolboy character was certainly formulated during Richmal's time as a teacher at St. Elphin's. She left the school in 1917 after further tentative forays into the world of writing, and William was finally 'born' in February 1919 in a short story published in Home Magazine targeted at the young housewife's market.

Its rather shy author hid behind her newly-adopted pseudonym Richmal Crompton, for fear that her new employers at Bromley High School might object to her extra-curricular activity.

After that very first 'William' story, Richmal never looked back, and it was a publishing firm with Derbyshire connections, George Newnes, which put its faith in her from the very start. George Newnes himself, founder of the now world-famous publishers, was born in Matlock Bath, and it was his company, after his death in 1910, which decided to publish the first 'William' stories in book form.

He made his debut in 1922 in Just William, by now aimed firmly at the juvenile market. The rest, as they say, is history. That first title spawned a series of 41 more William yarns which became a phenomenal worldwide success. Richmal became a full-time writer. Film, radio and television spin-off productions followed, and 'William' himself became rather a cult figure. Today first edition copies of the books are highly sought after by collectors, often with huge prices to match.

Perhaps because she is so closely identified with 'William', it is easy to overlook the fact that Richmal Crompton also wrote no fewer than 50 adult works, including one in 1925 entitled Anne Morrison, which the author confirmed was firmly based on her time in Derbyshire at St. Elphin's School.

Nevertheless, there is no getting away from 'William' - the eternal eleven-year-old, accompanied by his dog 'Jumble', the scourge of his life Violet Elizabeth Bott ('I'll scweam and scweam until I'm sick - I can you know'), spoilt softie Hubert Lane and the sundry other chums who secured Richmal Crompton's place in publishing history.

Richmal Crompton died aged 78 on 11 January 1969 in Farnborough Hospital, Kent. A certain poignant irony is attached to the fact that she had remained unmarried and had no family of her own, despite forever being associated with the world of children she portrayed and understood so well.

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County:  Derbyshire

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