| Great Britain 1964 (Jul) Embossed QEII Cover Postmark Ralph Allen Postal Pioneer
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| Cover with 3d Purple Embossed QEII cancelled "BATH/9 15PM/12 JUL/1964/SOMERSET" and addressed to Harold McNeil of Greenock, Renfrewshire Scotalnd with pictorial cachet "1764-1964/BICENTENARY OF/RALPH ALLEN/OF BATH/POSTAL PIONEER". Ralph Allen (1693 – 29 June 1764) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was notable for his reforms to the British postal system. He was baptised at St Columb Major in Cornwall on 24 July 1693. As a teenager he worked at the Post Office. He moved in 1710 to Bath, where he became a post office clerk, and at the age of 19, in 1712, became the Postmaster of Bath. In 1742 he was elected Mayor of Bath. At the age of 27 Allen took control of the Cross and Bye Posts in the South West under a seven-year contract with the General Post Office, although he had no official title. At the end of this period he had not made a profit, only breaking even. But he had the courage to continue – with breathtaking success. Over the next few years he reformed the postal service. He realised that post boys were delivering items of mail along their route without them being declared and that this was lost profit. He introduced a "signed for system" that prevented the malpractice. He also improved efficiency by not requiring mail to go via London. Ralph Allen`s reputation grew and he took over more and more of the English postal system, signing contracts every seven years until he died aged 71. It is estimated that he saved the Post Office £1,500,000 over a 40-year period. He won the patronage of General Wade in 1715, when he disclosed details of a Jacobite uprising in Cornwall.
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Item #: INV-113457
Condition Co
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Pricing in AU$
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Within Australia
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Outside Australia
A$ 5.45
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