She never married and had no children she was an aunt and a great-aunt. She gave up her teaching career and began to write full-time. Having contracted poliomyelitis in 1923 she was left without the use of her right leg. Cadogan (1993) shows that she was an excellent and committed teacher at both schools. In 1914, she returned to St Elphin's as a Classics mistress and later, at age 27, moved to Bromley High School in southeast London where she began her writing in earnest. She took part in the Women's Suffrage movement. Crompton graduated in 1914 with a BA honours degree in Classics (II class). In order to further her chosen career as a schoolteacher, she won a scholarship to Royal Holloway College, part of the University of London in Englefield Green, Surrey. She later moved with the school to a new location in Darley Dale, near Matlock, Derbyshire in 1904. Richmal Crompton attended St Elphin's Boarding School for the daughters of the clergy, originally based in Warrington, Lancashire.

Her brother, John Battersby Crompton Lamburn, also became a writer, remembered under the name John Lambourne for his fantasy novel The Kingdom That Was (1931) and under the name 'John Crompton' for his books on natural history. Edward John Sewell Lamburn, a Classics master at Bury Grammar School and his wife Clara (née Crompton). Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, the second child of the Rev. Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969) was a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. Richmal Crompton Lamburn, pictured on the cover of her biographyĬhildren's literature, novels, short stories inspiring

William the conqueror richmal crompton