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