A society launched to protect the apostrophe is shutting down due to what members have described as “laziness”.

John Richards worked in journalism for much of his career and started the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001 after he retired.

But at the age of 96, Mr Richards is closing 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!”

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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.”

Mr Richards claimed the biggest problem was not people misusing the apostrophe but not using it at all.

He also said the issue had been made worse by large companies like Lloyds Bank and Waterstones.

Mr Richards continued: “The biggest issue I have is not that people get it wrong and put the apostrophe in the wrong place – they just don’t use it altogether.

“In many ways it’s been completely abandoned and people and business just don’t use it at all, they leave it out.

“The problem has been speeding up over time and now more often than not the apostrophe is just not used.

“Look at Waterstones – they used to be Waterstone’s. They are a book seller so you’d think they should know better.

“I wrote to them to ask why they removed it and they said it was a ‘design issue’. But it sets a bad example.

“Lloyds are the same – they used to be Lloyd’s.

“It’s been going on for years and it’s just become much worse. It’s always been a concern.”