[3] In 1891, at the age of 14, Flora moved to take up a position as counter clerk at the post office in Fringford,[1] a village about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bicester, under the tutelage of the postmistress, Mrs Kezia Whitton.
[1][6][7] In 1903 she married John William Thompson, a post office clerk and telegraphist from the Isle of Wight,[1] at Twickenham Parish Church,[6] after which they moved to Bournemouth where they had a daughter, Winifred Grace (1903), and a son, Henry Basil (1909).
[1] Two of Thompson's later lesser-known works were published posthumously: Heatherley, recounting her time in the post office at Grayshott at the turn of the 20th century when several of her lifelong interests took shape, the longing for education and culture and the desire to become a writer;[14] and her last book Still Glides the Stream.
[15] Thompson's essays have been said to reveal an impressive knowledge of English literature and a gift for writing intelligent but accessible prose for a general audience.
[1] Thompson's trilogy has been widely used as a primary source for the social history of the period, although some historians have expressed reservations as to its validity for that purpose.