Flora Thompson

• Name — Flora Thompson • Birth Name — Flora Jane Timms • Born — 5 December 1876 • Birthplace — Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire, England • Died — 21 May 1947 • Place of death — Brixham, Devon, England • Resting Place — Longcross Cemetery, Dartmouth, Devon, England • Known for — Author and poet • Employer — Post office • Notable Works — Lark Rise to Candleford • Spouse — John William Thompson • Children — 3

Thompson was born Flora Jane Timms in Juniper Hill in northeast Oxfordshire, the eldest child of Albert and Emma Timms, a stonemason and nursemaid respectively. Albert and Emma had twelve children, but only six survived childhood. One of her younger sisters was Betty Timms, best known for her children's book The Little Grey Men of the Moor. The young Flora's early education was at the parish school in the village of Cottisford where she was described as 'altogether her father's child'. In 1891, at the age of 14, Flora moved to take up a position as counter clerk at the post office in Fringford, a village about 4 mi northeast of Bicester, under the tutelage of the postmistress, Mrs Kezia Whitton. She later served at various other post offices, including offices at Grayshott, Yateley, and Winton in Bournemouth. In 1903 she married John William Thompson, a post office clerk and telegraphist from the Isle of Wight, at Twickenham Parish Church, after which they moved to Bournemouth where they had a daughter, Winifred Grace (1903), and a son, Henry Basil (1909). In 1916 they moved to Liphook where their second son Peter Redmond was born (1918). Thompson's favourite brother, Edwin, was killed near Ypres in 1916.

The death of Thompson's younger son during the Second World War affected her deeply and overshadowed her final years. She died in 1947 of a heart attack in Brixham, and is buried at Longcross Cemetery, Dartmouth, Devon.

• Bog Myrtle and Peat (1921)

• Lark Rise (1939) • Over to Candleford (1941) • Candleford Green (1943) • Lark Rise to Candleford (1945, the above three novels published as a trilogy) • Still Glides the Stream (1948, published posthumously) • Heatherley (1944, published posthumously first in A Country Calendar 1979 along with some Peverel Papers and some poems; then as single volume in 1998) • Gates of Eden (serialised in The Peverel Monthly edited by Thompson in the late 1920s but never published as a separate volume) • Dashpers (unfinished, unpublished novel)

• The Peverel Papers (Abridged version published 1986; Complete version published 2008)

The authorities additionally record the headings Flora Jane Timms, Flora Jane Thompson and Flora (June) Thompson. Her recorded language was English.

Flora Thompson is recorded as poet, writer, postmaster, novelist and essayist.