A society dedicated to preserving the “much abused” apostrophe is to be shut down as its chairman said “ignorance and laziness” has won.
John Richards, who worked in journalism for much of his career, started the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001 after he retired.
Now aged 96, Mr Richards is calling time on the society which lists the three simple rules for correct use of the punctuation mark.
Writing on the society’s website, he said: “Fewer organisations and individuals are now caring about the correct use of the apostrophe in the English language.
“We, and our many supporters worldwide, have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!”
Mr Richards started the society after seeing the “same mistakes over and over again” and hoped he would find half a dozen people who felt the same way.
He said: “I didn’t find half a dozen people.
“Instead, within a month of my plaint appearing in a national newspaper, I received over 500 letters of support, not only from all corners of the United Kingdom, but also from America, Australia, France, Sweden, Hong Kong and Canada.”
While you're here
While you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
