Pat Lamburn (1925-2006)

Pat Lamburn was one of the innovators of British girls' romance comics in the 1950s, a point that rather slips by the obituary that has appeared in today's The Times (27 December). She was the editor of Mirabelle when it was launched by Pearson in 1956 and could rightly be called the mother of British romance comics (with Bob Lewis, who had launched Marilyn in 1955, the father and, coincidentally, the uncle of Pat Lamburn's assistant editor, Dick Lewis).

Lamburn, born 31 December 1925, was the daughter of Francis John Lamburn, the editor of Pearson's Weekly, and his wife Nell who, under her maiden name Kennedy, was famous in her day as the editor of women's mill girl romance titles like Peg's Paper. Nell Kennedy had launched the romance magazine Glamour in 1939 and her daughter relaunched the paper as a romance comic entitled The New Glamour in October 1956, a few weeks after the launch of Mirabelle.

She continued to be involved editorially in Mirabelle, Glamour and photo-romance comic Marty (launched in 1960) until she was appointed to the board of George Newnes in July 1966. She became a director of IPC Magazines in 1968 and was appointed Director of the Young Magazines Group until 1971 when she was appointed Publishing Director of the Women's Magazine Group.