Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer.
He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solution of pre-payment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters.
Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp.
Hill made the case that if letters were cheaper to send, people, including the poorer classes, would send more of them, thus eventually profits would go up.
Proposing an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage – with the first being the Penny Black – in 1840, the first year of Penny Post, the number of letters sent in the UK more than doubled.
Within 10 years, it had doubled again.
Within three years postage stamps were introduced in Switzerland and Brazil, a little later in the US, and by 1860, they were in 90 countries.
Author: The photographer is not credited in the book. I've found one other (poor quality) copy of the photo on the internet - at corbis.com, also uncredited. Source: Frontispiece of "Account of the Celebration of the Jubilee of Uniform Inland Penny Postage at the Venetian Chamber, Holborn Restaurant - at the Guildhall - at the Museum of Science and Art, South Kensington - and at Various Towns and Villages throughout the United Kingdom. London: Printed for the Jubilee Celebration Committee - General Post Office - 1891" License: PD UK