Inventor, Educator. He gained fame as an English inventor who reformed the expensive and slow Royal Postal Service by the Uniformed Penny Postage System in 1840. In 1837, he published "Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability." Laboring for years, he was the Postmaster General from 1846 to 1854 and was the Chief Secretary to the Post Office from 1854 to 1864. He is credited with modernizing the postal system and inventing the first postage stamp, which was labeled the "Black Penny." His system of postal service was adopted internationally. Born one of six surviving children of schoolmaster Thomas Wright Hill, his father was a part-time landscape painter and very political. In the harsh Victorian school era, he made reforms in the English educational system as he operated schools for fifteen years, which stressed self-discipline, student democracy, and intensive teaching with kindhearted educators. Before entering the postal service, he was appointed as a civil servant as the Secretary to the South Australia Colonization Commission, establishing the city of Adelaide. His sister's family immigrated to Australia in 1850. For his work with the postal service, he was knighted in 1860 and became a Fellow of the Royal Academy. In 1864, he was awarded the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of the Arts. The National Gallery has at least seven images of him, including the 1879 oil-on-canvas by John Alfred Vinter. Besides the bust on his gravesite, three public statues of Hill have been erected: the earliest stands in Birmingham, one is in his hometown of Kidderminster, and a third on King Edward Street in London outside what was at one time the General Post Office Headquarters. The street behind his home was named in his honor, and a plaque was erected on the site. In 1827 he married Caroline Pearson and the couple had a son and three daughters.
Inventor, Educator. He gained fame as an English inventor who reformed the expensive and slow Royal Postal Service by the Uniformed Penny Postage System in 1840. In 1837, he published "Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability." Laboring for years, he was the Postmaster General from 1846 to 1854 and was the Chief Secretary to the Post Office from 1854 to 1864. He is credited with modernizing the postal system and inventing the first postage stamp, which was labeled the "Black Penny." His system of postal service was adopted internationally. Born one of six surviving children of schoolmaster Thomas Wright Hill, his father was a part-time landscape painter and very political. In the harsh Victorian school era, he made reforms in the English educational system as he operated schools for fifteen years, which stressed self-discipline, student democracy, and intensive teaching with kindhearted educators. Before entering the postal service, he was appointed as a civil servant as the Secretary to the South Australia Colonization Commission, establishing the city of Adelaide. His sister's family immigrated to Australia in 1850. For his work with the postal service, he was knighted in 1860 and became a Fellow of the Royal Academy. In 1864, he was awarded the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of the Arts. The National Gallery has at least seven images of him, including the 1879 oil-on-canvas by John Alfred Vinter. Besides the bust on his gravesite, three public statues of Hill have been erected: the earliest stands in Birmingham, one is in his hometown of Kidderminster, and a third on King Edward Street in London outside what was at one time the General Post Office Headquarters. The street behind his home was named in his honor, and a plaque was erected on the site. In 1827 he married Caroline Pearson and the couple had a son and three daughters.
Bio by: Linda Davis
Inscription
Underneath is interred Sir Rowland Hill.
Born Dec. 3. 1795. Died Aug. 27. 1879.
Originator of the system of penny postage.
Gravesite Details
A life-sized white marble bust was erected near the grave in 1881.
Family Members
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