[The following was written by R.J.G. Dutton himself.]

Reginald John Garfield Dutton, the inventor of Dutton Shorthand and Dutton World Speedwords, was born in Nottingham, England, at 6.15 a.m. November 8, 1886.

One of a family of six, he was the elder son of George H. J. Dutton, J.P., a Fellow of the British Phrenological Society, Inc. He moved with his family in 1890 to the 'bracing' seaside resort of Skegness, Lincolnshire, to set up as a practising phrenologist. The income was not sufficient to maintain a healthy family, and Dutton senior later founded a Library, Bookselling, and Printing business in the main street of this small town, in which R.J.G.D. assisted his father after leaving school.

R.J.G.D. became the East Lincolnshire correspondent of important national and provincial newspapers in his 'teens'. There were no teachers of shorthand in the district, and because Dutton found the mastering of the Pitman system too arduous a process he studied, and later taught, Malone's Script Shorthand, which included vowels in the outline in their order as spoken.

Later Dutton thought Script Shorthand could be improved upon, so he devised a system of his own within a period of twelve months. His first publication to be registered in the British Museum Library was 'Shorthand in Three Days' in the year 1916. Minor amendments were made later, and Dutton One-Week Shorthand, as it is known to-day, was published in 1919. The complete theory of this system can be mastered in 24 hours of actual study, and its 100,000 exponents are spread over the whole world. Indeed, a class of Chinese boys, trained by a Dutton teacher in the Malay peninsula, all obtained certificates of proficiency, several with honours.

In 1920, Dutton was attracted to Esperanto, and spent £500 in national advertising in an effort to induce the British public to learn this International Auxiliary Language. Their apathy distressed him, and after much pondering he felt that some additional practical advantage was needed if the ideal of effective international communication between the masses of the peoples were to be attained, and international understanding and goodwill to be advanced.

After ten years study and research he published Dutton World Speedwords in 1943. The advantage over the 300 systems invented since the 17^th century efforts of Dalgarno and Bishop Wilkins was that Speedwords enables the writer also to use the medium as a shorthand system, and to take notes in ordinary handwriting at speeds up to 100-120 words per minute.

The invention has received the commendation of G. Bernard Shaw, Prof. Lancelot Hogben, F. R. S., and other distinguished men of letters, and is gaining an increasing number of adherents every day. Plans are in hand for adaptations of the text-book and companion publications to other languages. The structure of the system, and the hopes of the inventor, will be found in the introduction to the Dutton World Speedwords text-book, published by Dutton Rapid Writing Systems, Ltd., 92/3 Great Russel St., London, W.C.1.

Dutton's private interest include Choral and Organ music, Local Government, Contract Bridge, and Astrology. He has served on the local authority for 33 years, was elected Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee for eight years, and civic head of the town in 1930-1 and 1949-50. -- R. J. G. Dutton

[Note: Actually Dutton first introduced Speedwords to the world in 1935 under the name 'International Symbolic Script'. After some criticism from Dr. Foat, F.R.S., and linguist, Dutton revised the ISS and represented it to the world in 1936. Thus, the final product, World Speedwords, was introduced with the 1936 change. Since then, at least three revisions to Speedwords was done. Today, Speedwords has been 'nicknamed' Rap Lin Rie by Robert J. Petry, of Tucson, Arizona.

Also, even though Mr. Dutton mentions in his autobiographical material above that Speedwords textbooks in other languages were planned, this never actually came to pass. The primary reason was lack of funding.

Now, today, with the spread of the Internet worldwide, Speedwords is being reintroduced. And, texts in other languages are finally being produced. And, since being reintroduced through this website, there are now students of Speedwords in 33 countries, and growing. [Today, we have now grown to 55 countries as of 8/23/99. And, more on the way.]

R.J.G.D. died in 1970. He was married and had three children. One son was killed during the Second World War. The other children, along with their offspring are still going strong today.]