Frank Richards Was Creator Of Bunter

Press, Volume C, Issue 29707, 28 December 1961, Page 9

Frank Richards Was Creator Of Bunter

(N.Z.P. A. ~ Reuter —Copyright! LONDON, December 26. The man who created the immortal fat schoolboy, Billy Bunter, has died. He was Frank Richards, the author of the Greyfriars School stories.

Aged 86, he died at his home at Kingsgate, near Broadstairs. Kent, on Christmas Eve. His real name was Charles Hamilton Mr Richards, a bachelor, regarded Bunter and the other imaginary schoolboys

of Greyfriars as his own children. He wrote about them for more than 50 years. “They are more real to me than real people," Mr Richards would say. “I work for hours every day recording their adventures " From ihe age of 17. when he had his first story published —he began writing at the age of seven—his output increased until between the two world wars, it reached a peak of 25.000 words a week. The Bunter stories have for more than half a century delighted generations of real schoolboys. Though he wrote for many comic papers before the turn of the century—" Marvel,” “Pluck.” "Union Jack,” Boys’ Friend.” all long since extinct—Mr Richards' first attempt with the adventures of William George Bunter was turned down by the first publisher to whom it was offered The man later went out of business. Richards’ prolific output began when he wrote stories in the now defunct “Magnet” and its contemporary, the “Gem." boys’ magazines of the inter-war period, that took the Greyfriars adventures into millions of schools and homes. Mr Richards served in the forces throughout World War I and from his experiences came a book entitled “Old Soldiers Never Die." published in 1933 Three years later came another soldiering book “31d Soldier Sahib." a record of his service In India and Burma. In 1949 he began the first of seven new novels—this time about Bessie Bunter, the fat owl’s sister. Afterwards he created a new character. Jack of All Trades, whom he considered better than Bunter, but the new boy did not take the place of the “beastly rotter” of the Remove. A whole- new generation of children enjoyed Bunter on television, the latest series of which finished last July