Rowland Hill (1795-1879)

Rowland Hill invented the prepaid postage stamp. He was an important Victorian reformer who wanted to improve living conditions for everyone. This included making it possible for all people to be able to afford to send letters to their friends and families.

He believed that if more people were able to send letters, then more people would learn to read and write which would greatly improve their lives.

Young Rowland Hill

He was born in 1795 in Kidderminster, near Birmingham. He had five brothers and sisters. His parents encouraged them to be inventive and question everything.

In the 1830s there were many things which people thought needed changing, such as who could vote and what kind of education should be available to boys and girls.

At first, Rowland worked as a teacher in his father’s school but he really wanted to come up with new ideas to change the way people lived. 

Rowland Hill's big idea

In 1837 he wrote an important booklet called Post Office Reform. He wanted to change the way people paid for postage. People used to have to pay a certain amount depending on how many sheets of paper they used and how far the letter travelled. This was very expensive.

Rowland wanted to make postage cheaper, so that people paid for the letter by weight. His idea was that it should only cost one penny to send a letter. This would normally be paid for by the person who sent the letter.

In 1839 he was asked to oversee the work of introducing the world’s first postage stamp. The stamp was called the Penny Black and went on sale in 1840.

Old Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill did a lot more than just introduce the postage stamp. In 1846 he became the Secretary to the Postmaster General. Then in 1854 he became the Secretary to the whole Post Office oragnisation. This meant he could make bigger changes such as introducing the Post Office Savings Bank to encourage all people to save.

Rowland Hill died in 1879 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London - a great honour and a mark of how important his work had been. His ideas still have an impact on how we live today.