Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Heaton, John Henniker
HEATON, Sir JOHN HENNIKER, first baronet (1848–1914), postal reformer, was born at Rochester 18 May 1848, the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Heaton, of Heaton, Lancashire, by his wife, Helen, daughter and co-heir of John Henniker, of Rochester. Educated at Kent House School and King's College, London, Henniker Heaton went to Australia at the age of sixteen (1864), and spent some years in the Bush. He subsequently moved to Paramatta, New South Wales, and joined the staff of the Mercury newspaper. He acted as town clerk of Paramatta from December 1869 till February 1870. Heaton then edited a paper in Goulburn with the prophetic title of The Penny Post, moving thence to Sydney, where he joined the staff of The Australian and County Journal, owned by Samuel Bennett, a writer on Australian history, described by Heaton as ‘the best friend I ever had’. In 1873 he married Bennett's only daughter, Rose. During the next ten years Henniker Heaton identified himself with the public life of Sydney, and wrote a standard work of reference, The Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time (1879). In 1882 he stood for parliament as a candidate for New South Wales, but was defeated by a small majority. He represented New South Wales as commissioner at the Amsterdam exhibition of 1883, and Tasmania at the Berlin International Telegraphic Conference in 1885, when he succeeded in materially reducing the cost of cable messages to Australia; he was again commissioner for New South Wales at the Indian and Colonial exhibition held in London in 1886. Throughout his life he so consistently forwarded Australian interests that he became known as ‘the member for Australia’.
In 1884 Henniker Heaton settled with his family in London, and at the general election of 1885 he was returned to parliament in the conservative interest as member for Canterbury, a seat which he held for twenty-six years. After the general election of 1892 a baronetcy was offered to him on condition of his giving up his seat to a former conservative minister who had just been defeated. Regarding the condition as degrading to his own career and disloyal to his constituents, Henniker Heaton refused, and on account of this circumstance rejected three times the offer of a K.C.M.G. as a reward for his patriotic services. During his parliamentary career he worked continuously and persistently at postal reform: owing to his exertions the cost of cabling to different parts of the world was much reduced, imperial penny postage (except with Australia) came into force on 25 December 1898, whilst Anglo-American penny postage was won in 1908, and Anglo-Australian penny postage during the years 1905 to 1911. At the dissolution of 1910 Henniker Heaton retired from parliament owing to ill-health. In 1911, while he was on a visit to Australia, a baronetcy was conferred upon him, and on his return a public welcome, held under the auspices of the British Empire League and presided over by Earl Curzon, was accorded him at the Guildhall. In September 1914 he was taken ill while returning from Carlsbad, and he died at Geneva on 8 September. He had four sons and two daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John (born 1877).
Henniker Heaton had an attractive and vital personality, with the gift of imparting to others something of his own tireless enthusiasm about the things for which he cared. The campaign for postal reform opened in 1886, when he moved a resolution in the House of Commons with a view to establishing a system of universal penny postage. He was opposed on financial grounds, and defeated. From this moment Henniker Heaton preached his gospel both in and out of season, for he was of the type that does not recognize refusal. By 1890 he had succeeded in reducing international postage from six-pence to twopence half-penny. When at last he succeeded (at Christmas 1898) in making imperial penny postage an accomplished fact, Australia still stood out, and it was not until 1905 that he was able to post a penny letter to Australia. Unhappily he did not live to see the adoption of his cherished ideal of penny postage to France. The secret of his success as a reformer may be gauged by a saying of Mr. Asquith, ‘If I give way to Henniker Heaton on a single point, he is on my door-step next morning with fifty more’. He had a genius for friendship and was a keen clubman, being one of the early founders of the Bath Club.
[Mrs. Adrian Porter (daughter), The Life and Letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton, Bart., 1916; private information.]