Those who care about
English punctuation, especially the apostrophe, will be saddened to hear
of the death of John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection
Society, who died peacefully in hospital with his children at his
bedside on 30th March 2021.
John moved to Boston,
Lincolnshire (UK) in 1988 when he retired from his work as a journalist.
Looking for an outlet for his journalistic energies, in 2001 he started
a campaign against the increasingly widespread misuse of the
apostrophe. “The apostrophe deserves our protection. This poor
defenceless creature is indeed a threatened species”, he remarked.
Within weeks of the
launch he was inundated by interview requests from newspapers, radio and
TV stations, as well as thousands of supportive emails from all around
the world. From American soldiers in Iraq to a peer in the House of
Lords, from radio stations in Australia to TV stations in Sweden, the
variety of interest shown in the apostrophe was beyond his wildest
dreams. John’s name was correctly given as the answer to a question
asked by Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge, which delighted him. In
2001, Harvard University awarded him the Ig Nobel Prize for Literature –
given for unusual or trivial achievements in research.
In 2019, aged 95, he
decided to close the APS, citing his age and a belief that “the
barbarians have won”. He thought that the widespread use of modern
technology would eventually render apostrophes redundant.
During his time in
Boston, John was an active member of the Blackfriars Drama Society,
treading the boards for the first time in his seventies, wrote a play
which was performed by the Society to great acclaim, and frequently
featured on the letter pages of local newspapers. He was a skilful and
imaginative photographer, had a keen interest in science and history,
and enjoyed watercolour painting and pen and ink drawing. He kept an
interest in the political changes taking place and handled increasing
age and infirmity with courage and dignity.
He will be sadly missed by his family and friends and is survived by his children, Katherine and Stephen.
April 2021
By Helene, Katherine
and Stephen Richards
and Stephen Richards
