A concise history of ITI
Pamela Mayorcas provides her personal recollection of the formation of ITI as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations.
The back story is that the Translators’ Guild, then part of the Institute of Linguists (IoL), had its own examination to become an MTG, Member of the Translators’ Guild (TG). Some members of the IoL Board wanted any member of the Institute to be able to affix the letters MTG to their name. Others, notably Marti Smith and John Sykes, were rightly adamant that the post-nominals should be reserved for those who had passed the TG examination. Marti began to think that the intransigence on the part of the IoL Board was such that the only option was to set up a new professional body, which would award its own membership examination. Marti invited Dr John Sykes – a well-known and highly respected technical translator, working for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, and Editor of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary – to lead a committee to consider the feasibility of establishing an entirely new organisation for professional translators. That in itself was an audacious step in the early 1980s.
Marti wrote to a number of other people, inviting them to join the committee. She knew me from a TG meeting at which a panel of translators had spoken about their entry into the profession. I had been recruited by the EU in 1973 as a staff translator and spoke about why I had become a translator, my training, my first job at the Foreign Office and my subsequent recruitment to the English Translation Division in Brussels.
Marti had also recruited a representative of the Translators’ Association (published and literary translators), heads of translation services in industry and, notably, Geoffrey Kingscott, who ran a very successful translation agency in Nottingham and was also well known for Language International, the first UK-based magazine for translators.
Together, we sent hundreds of letters to individuals and organisations, teachers of translation, heads of business and industry, who we thought would support the establishment of an institute for translation.
The response was overwhelming, resulting in not one but two meetings at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. It was a most daring but astonishingly successful initiative.
Originally proposed as an Institute for Translation, proposals from the floor and a vote resulted in the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) being voted into existence. Further discussion also resulted in the new Institute being open to translation companies. I, amongst others, argued that we would achieve more by being within the same tent, rather than sitting on opposite sides of the fence.
During successive committee meetings, we thought about how to establish the new ITI as a meaningful force within the industry. The numbers grew, income started rolling in (I think the membership fee was then £50), and heads of translation departments and lecturers from university departments all joined. Professor Juan Sager of University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) agreed to serve as the first President. He was well known in translation circles as the promoter of a British Terminology Database.
Those were the first hurdles to overcome. The next was to start operating as a new Institute, with no premises and very little money.
I was appointed the Institute’s first Executive Secretary. I ran the Institute from my front room for several months with my trusty Amstrad, serving as Secretary to Dr Sykes, who had been voted in as Chairman of the new Institute.
Through my contacts in the world of information science, we were offered free premises at Aslib’s office in Boswell Street, with an office, desk, telephone line, filing cabinet and use of photocopying and printing facilities. Together with a couple of volunteer members, we maintained a flow of information to supporters and the early membership and published a quarterly journal, ITI News.
The then Secretary of the Translators’ Guild, Dimity Castellano, was able to give notice and join ITI as its Secretary. With the membership growing, we were able to rent a small office on the Finchley Road.
Publications
I was Deputy Editor of the Institute’s first publication, the quarterly ITI News, helping the Editor, Robin Inches, to gather copy and liaise with the authors of the different sections. We were very well supported by Chameleon Press, well known as a publisher of specialist industry journals.
As Chairman of the Publications Committee, and working with Lanna Castellano, we published a series of booklets offering advice for translators and interpreters – So You Want to Be a Translator; So You Want to Be an Interpreter.
I also helped John Gardam to create the first-ever Rates and Salaries Survey, covering both translation and interpreting.
CPD
The very first translation conference was held at the Hotel Russell in London, chaired by Geoff Kingscott. Aslib published our Conference Proceedings, edited by Catriona Picken, then Head of Shell’s Translation Service. We held a translation conference every year, incorporating ITI’s AGM into the second morning. I organised the 10th Anniversary Conference, held at The Forum Hotel in West London. We later held the first Edinburgh Conference in collaboration with the ITI Scottish Regional Group, facilitated by an innovative video-conferencing suite made available by the head of Unilever’s Translation Service, with Hugh Keith running the Edinburgh end.
Based on a model established by the TG, we held a number of Translation Weekend Workshops at different university towns throughout the UK. I reinstated the Education and Training Committee, which ultimately resulted in the appointment of a full-time Education Officer as part of the ITI staff.
Networks and regional groups
Lanna Castellano set up the very first Italian Network, establishing a model for all the other language networks. Chris Percival set up the North-East Regional Group, establishing a model for all future Regional Groups.
Conclusion
I agree with something that Fiona said or wrote, in the lead-up to the 40th Anniversary Conference, that we should not be dwelling on the past or indulging in nostalgia but, rather, looking forward to the future of the industry and of the Institute’s members.
This article was published originally in the October 2026 edition of ITI Insight.
