Pitman Isaac James

 

Player Isaac James Pitman

Sir (Isaac) James Pitman

President 1952-1954

Position: Wing

Born: 1901 in London

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Education: Summer Fields School, Eton College and Christ Church College, Oxford University

Achievements: Bath Captain 1927/28, Knighted in 1960

Honours: Oxford Blue 1921, England (1 cap)

Debut game: 12th April 1919 v New Zealanders Command Depot

Final game: 21st April 1928 v Old Merchant Taylors

Number of Appearances: 61

Career details: Capped for England against Scotland in 1922 A strong running wing threequarter “I J” captained Bath in the 1927/28 season.  After graduating from Oxford, he joined the family business founded by his grandfather, Sir Isaac Pitman who had developed Shorthand Writing. He was MP for Bath between 1945 and 1964 and served on the boards of several large public companies including Boots, Bovril and Equity & Law as well as working as a campaigner for spelling reform. He was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bath between 1972 and 1981. The papers of Sir James Pitman relate primarily to the initial teaching alphabet (ita), a phonetically augmented alphabet designed to minimise the discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation which can cause problems in the early development of reading skills. In 1963 Pitman established the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation which aimed to realise the teaching potential of ita throughout the world. By September 1970 it was estimated that ita was being used in approximately 4000 schools in the UK and in a wide range of teaching projects in North America, Australia and Africa. Sir Isaac James Pitman was President of the Bath RFC from 1952 1954.