defender of use of the apostrophe has quit his decades-long battle for correct use of the punctuation mark. John Richards, 96, was chairman of Apostrophe Protection Society, which was established in 2001 to campaign to encourage better writing and understanding of purpose of the apostrophe. Mr Richards wrote on the society's website: "Fewer organisations and individuals are now caring about correct use of the apostrophe in the English language. We, and our many supporters worldwide, have done our best but ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won." He added: "Over the years we have heard from thousands of supporters all over world...but barbarians have won."
Mr Richards started the society after seeing "same mistakes over and over again". He wanted to highlight people's mistakes and get people to end the misuse of apostrophe. He said he hoped half dozen people would join him in his quest, but was heartened by support he received worldwide. He received 500 letters from all over world within month of starting website. Mr Richards' biggest beef was not people misusing the apostrophe, but people not using it at all. He called out big companies for this. In UK, companies like Lloyds Bank and bookstore Waterstones dispensed with apostrophe in their names. Maybe Mr Richards was happy with burger chain McDonald's.
