John Battersby Crompton Lamburn (1893 – 1972) was a British writer, younger brother of Richmal Crompton, who was best known for her "William" books for boys. She was said to have drawn part of her inspiration for the character of William from him.
During World War I Lamburn served in Rhodesia in the British South Africa Police. Afterwards he joined a shipping firm in China, where he travelled widely. Returning to England in the 1930s he took to writing fiction, mainly under the pseudonym "John Lambourne". He probably is best known for his fantasy The Kingdom That Was.
In World War II he served in the RAF. Afterwards, under the name "John Crompton", he wrote mainly non-fiction on natural history themes. Beyond his published works little is known about Lamburn's life and works, because most of his notes were destroyed in an act of arson.
Life and work
John Battersby Crompton Lamburn (June 1893 — 3 April 1972) was a British writer, the younger brother of the more popular author Richmal Crompton. She was the author of many novels, but best known for her hugely popular "William" books for boys.
He wrote fiction mainly under the pseudonym "John Lambourne", or "John B. C. Lambourne", and wrote popular books on natural history under the name "John Crompton". He probably is best known for his fantasy The Kingdom That Was (1931).
As Trooper 1757 Lamburn, J. B. C. of the British South Africa Police, he served from 19 September 1913 to 30 November 1919, a period which spans World War I. In both his fiction and non-fiction he drew on his police experiences, but according to the official BSAP site nothing is known of his service. (This is no evidence for anything worse than that he never achieved any special prominence in the service, as little is known of the service of most of the troopers of those days.) On leaving the Force he moved to the Far East and travelled widely in China. Returning to England in the 1930s he took to full-time writing, by now drawing on his experience of travel in East Asia as well.
Little is widely known about Lamburn's life and works, but a few details can be gleaned or inferred from various sources.
According partly to Lamburn's own account of himself, on one of his book covers, he was educated at Bury Grammar School and Manchester University. His father was the Rev Edward John Sewell Lamburn, and apparently intended his son to follow in his own footsteps and go into the Anglican Church, but instead, in 1913 at the age of twenty, young Lamburn joined the Rhodesian Mounted Police of the British South Africa Police or BSAP, as a trooper. Presumably this was to the considerable consternation of his parents, and his age at the time suggests that he did not complete a degree course at Manchester.
Consistently with that suspicion, the second of his two elder sisters was Richmal Crompton Lamburn, a novelist and the author of the hugely popular "William" stories, and she was said to have derived part of her inspiration for her leading character, William Brown — a rough diamond — from her young brother. This all suggests that Lamburn might well have been very unpromising ecclesiastical material, and deeply unenthusiastic about his studies. Certainly some of his autobiographical reminiscences on the vigour and variety of his life in Southern Africa and elsewhere, suggest that as a very plausible inference; see for example some passages in his book "The Hunting Wasp", especially chapter 4 (III: Locust and Cockroach Hunters) and chapter 6 The Fly Hunters.
He described his fellow-troopers as being about as hard-bitten a crew as it would be possible to find anywhere. He stayed with the BSAP throughout World War I. His duties included patrolling large areas of undeveloped country, and taking charge of isolated up-country out-stations. He found it to be a glorious life in country as unspoilt as any that Selous hunted. It was full of big game – in his own words: “...country we shall see no more.”