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A defender of the use of the apostrophe has his decades-long battle for the correct use of the punctuation mark. John Richards, 96, chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society, which was established in 2001 to to encourage better writing and understanding of the purpose of the apostrophe. Mr Richards on the society's website: "Fewer organisations and individuals now caring about the correct use of the apostrophe in the English language. We, and our many supporters worldwide, have our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have ." He : "Over the years we have from thousands of supporters all over the world...but the barbarians have ."

Mr Richards the society after the "same mistakes over and over again". He to highlight people's mistakes and people to end the misuse of the apostrophe. He said he half a dozen people would join him in his quest, but was heartened by the support he worldwide. He received 500 letters from all over the world within a month of starting the website. Mr Richards' biggest beef was not people the apostrophe, but people not using it at all. He out big companies for this. In the UK, companies like Lloyds Bank and the bookstore Waterstones with the apostrophe in their names. Maybe Mr Richards happy with the burger chain McDonald's.