James Pitman

Sir Isaac James Pitman (known as James), KBE (14 August 1901 – 1 September 1985) was a publisher, senior civil servant, politician, and prominent educationalist with a lifelong passion for etymology, orthography, and pedagogy.

He is best known for his attempt to improve children's literacy in the English-speaking world by means of an interim teaching orthography, known as the initial teaching alphabet or i.t.a.

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

His father was Ernest Pitman, and his mother was Frances Isabel Pitman, née Butler.

He 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.

The innovations made by his grandfather were monetized into the successful family business, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd. Due to this fact, James Pitman was born into a wealthy family and received a privileged upbringing, being educated at the elite Summer Fields School, Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Modern History.

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

Despite this, Pitman's principal sporting passion was rugby union where he played as a running Wing Three-Quarters.

His association with education started in the 1920s, when Pitman served for a time as headmaster of one of the colleges in Maida Vale under the ownership of his family's business interests (Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd).

Over his career, 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: -

Despite the plethora of esteemed positions attained or accolades received, whenever Pitman described himself, such as in his Who's Who listing, he would always place highly his rank & file membership of the National Union of Teachers, this exposed his progressive conservative tendencies over educational matters.

Pitman had an extensive career as a public servant:

Pitman gained his 'blue' at the Oxford University Rugby Football Club (RFC) in 1921, but his main playing career was for Bath Rugby Football Club (RFC) in 61 appearances between 1919 and 1928, he was captain between 1927 & 1928.

His 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.

During World War II Pitman served as a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve under Service Number (79438)

It was during the war years that Pitman tragically lost three of his five siblings.

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

In 1927, Pitman married into the British nobility when he wed the Hon. Margaret Beaufort Lawson Johnston, aka 'Beau' who was the daughter of George Lawson Johnston, 1st Baron Luke and Hon. Edith Laura St. John; they had four children together: -

In circa 1932, he became the chairman and managing director of Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.

Under his stewardship, the business became one of the world's leading educational publishers and training businesses with offices in London, Bath, New York City, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Toronto and Tokyo.

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

As a member of parliament, he championed many notable causes:-

Pitman was first elected as a Conservative M.P. in the 1945 Labour party landslide win, after which he was involved in the opposition to the nationalisation programme of Clement Attlee's government.

In particular, he debated extensively on the nationalisation of the Bank of England and the Gas Board, and wrote the influential pamphlet "Management efficiency in nationalized undertakings", in which he impartially analysed the issues of consumer rights and efficiency in the different models of nationalised industries tried by the Labour government.

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

As director of the Bank of England during the war, Pitman was on the board in 1946 which oversaw the nationalisation of the Bank of England by the new Labour administration.

During the war, the Board also had to address the Nazi attempt to financially de-stabilise the United Kingdom through the injection into the British economy of bank-notes forged at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, this often overlooked episode in Second World War history was dramatized in the BBC comedy, Private Schulz.

Pitman later became President of the Bath RFC from 1952 & 1954.

He 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.

Pitman obsessively studied English etymology, alphabets and orthography.

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

He compiled and published his analysis in his major work, Alphabets and Reading (1965).

Pitman postulated that if children were taught using an interim orthography consisting of an alphabet and spelling system which were phonetically regular, then they would learn to read quickly and easily and so alleviate the problem of poor literacy which plagued the English-speaking world.

He relentlessly exploited his position as a leading politician and prominent educationalist along with the resources and connections from his successful global printing and publishing business to develop and launch the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), which was initially a spectacular success with its use expanding to 4,000 schools in the UK and 17,000 schools worldwide.

The publishing business re-incorporated to Pitman Limited in 1975 then went public in 1983 before being purchased by rival Pearson Plc in 1985.

The training business evolved into two separate businesses: Pitman Training Group and JHP Training (which re-branded to Learndirect).

Pitman also served on the board of directors of several large publicly limited companies including Boots the Chemists, Glaxo, Bovril and Equity & Law Life Assurance Society

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