About Sir Rowland Hill

This Victorian gentleman who introduced the system of pre-payment of postal packets with the adhesive PENNY BLACK in 1840, is not surprisingly held in very high regard by all stamp collectors. Before this time it was the responsibility of the recipient to find the cash when the postman delivered. Being a Liberal with a good sense of the needs of all classes of society he felt this was somewhat of an imposition for the working classes who seldom had the proverbial two ha'pence to rub together! The result was that this great reform was eventually passed through Parliament and the responsibility for payment was passed to the sender.

It was somewhat later that a further reform was introduced - that of a UNIVERSAL PENNY POSTAGE RATE. This ensured that where-ever in the world the relatives lived, the cost was the same for the minimum weight by sea-mail which often took two or three months to reach it's destination.

Born in Kidderminster in 1795, in Blackwell Street on the site that was later used to build the modern telephone exchange, he was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1879 having served as a Member of Parliament and Postmaster General. The statue which was erected some years later bears the inscription: