Rowland Hill
Devisor of the Postal system, inventor and teacher (1795–1879) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer.[1] He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solution of pre-payment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp.
Sir Rowland Hill KCB FRS | |
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Born | (1795-12-03)3 December 1795 Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England |
Died | 27 August 1879(1879-08-27) (aged 83) Hampstead, London, England |
Resting place | Westminster Abbey |
Occupation(s) | Schoolteacher, social reformer, postal administrator |
Known for | Uniform Penny Post |
Awards | Albert Medal (1864) |
Signature | |
Hill made the case that if letters were cheaper to send, people, including the poorer classes, would send more of them, thus eventually profits would go up.[2] Proposing an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage – with the first being the Penny Black – in 1840, the first year of Penny Post, the number of letters sent in the UK more than doubled.[2] Within 10 years, it had doubled again. Within three years postage stamps were introduced in Switzerland and Brazil, a little later in the US, and by 1860, they were used in 90 countries.[2]