25 Facts About James Pitman

Sir Isaac James Pitman, KBE was a publisher, senior civil servant, politician, and prominent educationalist with a lifelong passion for etymology, orthography, and pedagogy.

James Pitman was honoured with a knighthood in 1961 for his life accomplishments.

James Pitman followed his famous grandfather, Isaac Pitman, by exploring and expanding the pedagogical theories on teaching children to read the English language.

James Pitman then argued that the overarching cause of reading difficulty in children was the phonetic irregularity of the English language.

James Pitman compiled and published his analysis in his major work, Alphabets and Reading.

Isaac James Pitman was born in Kensington, London, on the 14th of August 1901.

James Pitman's father was Ernest Pitman, and his mother was Frances Isabel Pitman, nee Butler.

James Pitman was the eldest child in the family and had five other siblings, but three were killed in the Second World War:.

Pitman's grandfather was the famous Isaac Pitman, who had developed Shorthand Writing known as Pitman Shorthand; in consequence, Isaac James Pitman went by his middle name 'James' to differentiate himself from his grandfather.

In 1927, James Pitman married into the British nobility when he wed the Hon.

James Pitman was a natural sportsman and excelled in athletics, skiing and boxing in which he won the Public Schools middleweight boxing championship of 1919.

James Pitman's career culminated in his selection to play for the England rugby union team against Scotland in the Calcutta Cup, played on 18 March 1922, but he only ever earned that single international cap.

James Pitman joined his father Ernest Pitman and his uncle Alfred Pitman in the family business originally set-up with his grandfather Sir Isaac Pitman.

James Pitman became a prominent British educationalist, promoting education from kindergarten children to adult training.

Over his career, James Pitman became one of the most prominent persons in the British educational establishment through the mid 20th century, attaining leadership positions in many eminent educational institutes: -.

At the 1945 general election, James Pitman was elected to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as Conservative Member of Parliament for the Borough of Bath, he was re-elected four times: - 1950,1951,1955,1959 before finally retiring from Parliament just before the 1964 general election.

James Pitman consistently used his position to petition for improvements to education and training and the funding thereof.

James Pitman passionately argued in Parliament to make it easier for kindergarten-aged children to learn to read and write through orthographical and spelling reforms to the English Language.

James Pitman worked with the similarly minded Labour MP, Mont Follick, to table a series of private members' bills to enable the reforms.

In 1961, James Pitman was honoured by being appointed as an Ordinary Knights Commander of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

In May 1936, Pitman was elected to the committee of the Simplified Spelling Society after a fortuitous meeting on board a steam-ship in the mid Atlantic between Pitman and committee member, Professor Lloyd James, Professor of Phonetics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.

James Pitman re-invigorated the society by bringing both enthusiasm from his grandfather's phonetic legacy and the resources of James Pitman and Sons.

The first item of business was the publication of the seminal book "New Spelling" which Professor Lloyd James Pitman considered as 'One of the most remarkable statistical investigations into English spelling ever undertaken.

James Pitman would become treasurer of the Society and was eventually elevated to the President in 1936.

James Pitman was part of a parliamentary group led by the Labour MP Dr, Mont Follick, who argued that orthographic reform to the English language was needed to improve levels of literacy and to make it easier for young children to learn to read and write.