Updated: Jul 30

The founder of Penny Black stamp was Sir Rowland Hill. Sir Rowland who was born on 3″ December 1795 in Birmingham, England started his working life as a school teacher. He was then appointed as the secretary of the post office. But from 1836 he devoted his life as a post office reformer. Some of his major achievements are to introduce uniform for postal workers and to establish a cheap postal system among many difficulties.

In the year 1840 when Sir Rowland Hill was 44 years old, on the 6 of May, occurred the greatest event of the philatelic history. It was the creation of the first ever adhesive postage stamp of the world; Penny Black, under the instruction of Sir Rowland Hill. That is why he is called “The founder of Penny Black.” On the stamp was the image of Queen Victoria. It was not mentioned on the stamp of which country it is, because obviously it was the first stamp of the whole world. Then he retired from postal service in 1864, but he was elected a member of the Royal Society as the result of the honors bestowed on him. But unfortunately, he passed away on the 27″ of August 1879, when he was 84 years old. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

At this incident many countries issued stamps to commemorate him and his great works. The Sri Lankan postal authority too issued a stamp on the 27 August 1979 to mark the centenary of the death of this great personality.