Rowland Hill (mail)
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Sir Rowland Hill KCB FRS (December 3, 1795 - August 27, 1879) was a British teacher and pamphleteer who popularized the concept of penny postage, and was subsequently a government postal official. He is usually credited in the UK with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service.
Early Life
Hill was born in Blackwell Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire. At the age of 11, he became a student-teacher in his father's school. He would teach astronomy and earn extra money fixing scientific instruments.[link] He also worked at the assay office in Birmingham and painted paintings.[link]In 1819, he established the Hazlewood School at Edgbaston, near Birmingham. The school included such marvels (for its time) as a science lab and swimming pool. In his Plans for the Government and Education of Boys in Large Numbers (1822) he argued that moral influence of the highest kind should be the predominant power in school discipline.[link] The school was moved to London in 1827. He retired from teaching in 1833.
Postal Reform and Other Activities
In 1834, Hill became secretary of the South Australian Commission, which worked successfully for the establishment of a non-convict settlement at what is today Adelaide. He would keep that position until 1839.
About this time, Hill interested himself in postal reform. There are stories, most likely apocryphal, about how he gained this interest--that he saw a young woman unable to redeem a letter sent to her by her fiancé. At this time, letters were most often paid for by the recipient, not the sender. The recipient could refuse delivery. Frauds, such as coded information on the cover of the letter, that the recipient would look at, gain the information, and then refuse delivery and payment, were far from unknown. Each individual letter had to be logged. In addition, postal rates were complex, depending on distance and the number of sheets in the letter.
Hill published his famous pamphlet Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability in 1837. The report called for postage to be prepaid by the sender, and for the prepayment to be proven by prepaid letter sheets or adhesive stamps (adhesive stamps had long been used to show payment of taxes--for example, on documents). Letter sheets were to be used because envelopes were not yet common--they were not yet mass-produced, and in an era when postage was calculated partly on the basis of the number of sheets of paper used, the same sheet of paper would be folded and serve both as message and for the address. In addition, he proposed a uniform postage rate of a penny per half ounce, without regard to distance. He presented his proposal to the Government.
Hill's plan was adopted in 1839, despite strong opposition from William Leader Maberly, joint secretary to the General Post Office. He was given a two-year contract to run the new system.
In 1840, the prepaid letter sheets, with a design by William Mulready, were distributed. They were not a success and were widely satirized. According to a brochure distributed by the National Postal Museum, the letter sheets threatened the livelihoods of stationary manufacturers, who encouraged the satires. The government was forced to use most of them on official mail.
In May 1840, the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp, was distributed. It was an immediate success. Refinements, such as perforations to ease the separating of the stamps, would be instituted in later issues.
Later Life
Hill continued at the Post Office until 1842. He became Secretary to the Postmaster General in 1846, and Secretary to the Post Office from 1854-1864. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1860. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and was given an honorary degree from Oxford.He died in Hampstead, London in 1879. Sir Rowland Hill is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Legacy
Hill's legacies are two: the postage stamp, which we take for granted, and the system whereby postage rates, at least for basic rates, do not vary within a country. In fact, "Universal Penny Postage" continued in the United Kingdom into the twentieth century, and at one point, one penny paid for up to four ounces.There are three public statues of him. The first, sculpted by Sir Thomas Brock and unveiled in 1881, stands in the town of his birthplace, Kidderminster[Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project]. The second by Edward Onslow Ford stands at King Edward Street, London[Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project], and the third lesser known one by Peter Hollins, used to stand in Hurst Street, Birmingham but is currently in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery store[Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project]. There is now at Tottenham a local History Museum at Bruce Castle (where he lived during the 1840´s) including exhibits connected to him.
The Rowland Hill Award is named after him. In 1882, the Post Office instituted the Rowland Hill Fund, for postal workers, pensioners and dependants in need.
References
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