William Murray (educationist)
William Murray (19 April 1912 - 21 September 1995) was a British educationist who created the Ladybird Peter and Jane books.[1][2]
Early life
He was born in County Londonderry.
Career
He worked as a teacher. He became a headmaster at two schools in Cheltenham and a County Education Advisor for Devon.[3] He lectured throughout Britain on the teaching of reading.
Learning to read
He published a booklet called Key Words to Literacy with the education psychologist Joe McNally from the University of Manchester. The booklet described that they had found that in the English language that children spoke, twelve words accounted for one quarter of all words, one hundred accounted for half, and three hundred accounted for three-quarters.[3]
Ladybird
The Key Words Reading Scheme, taking his ideas, was first published in 1964, with Peter and Jane, and went on to sell over 80 million copies of the books in the series.[3]
Peter and Jane were based on the real-life children (Jill Ashurst and Christopher Edwards)[4] of a neighbour of the books' illustrator Harry Wingfield.[5] Martin Aitchison and John Berry also illustrated the books.
He retired from teaching in 1970.
Personal life
He married Edith and they had a son and daughter. He died in Cheltenham at the age of 83.[6][7] He lived on Leckhampton Road in Cheltenham.
References
- ↑ Connolly, Cressida (29 November 2008). "Obituary: Douglas Keen". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ↑ Bracewell, Michael (28 February 2004). "Happy Days". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- 1 2 3 Keen, Douglas (4 December 1995). "Obituary: William Murray". The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ↑ Jill Ashurst
- ↑ Daily Mail December 2008
- ↑ Gloucestershire
- ↑ TES 1995