George Chetwynd
British post officer manager
About George Chetwynd
Lived 1824 – 1882 (aged 57–58). George Chetwynd was a post officer.
George Chetwynd (1824 – 3 December 1882) was the Receiver and Accountant General of the British Post Office.
In 1860, when working as a junior bookkeeper in the Money Order Office of the General Post Office, Chetwynd proposed the establishment of a network of Post Office Savings Banks 'having for its object the security of money deposited at Savings Banks, and the encouragement of the working classes in provident habits'. The Post Office Savings Bank was established in the UK the following year, with Chetwynd appointed to be its Controller.
In 1874 (by which time he had been promoted to the senior office of Receiver and Accountant General), Chetwynd conceived of the postal order as a cheaper alternative to the more cumbersome money order (though it was 1 January 1881 before the first "post office notes" finally went on sale). Despite postal orders being a form of money order, the Money Order Office initially refused to have anything to do with the innovation, so Chetwynd's own Receiver and Accountant General's Department administered the postal order system (more than twenty years passed before the Postal Order Branch and Money Order Department were finally amalgamated).
George Chetwynd died at Blackheath, London, aged 58.
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Important facts
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped George Chetwynd's
Frequently asked questions
Who was George Chetwynd?
British post officer manager
When was George Chetwynd born?
George Chetwynd was born in 1824.
When did George Chetwynd die?
George Chetwynd died on 3 December 1882.
What was George Chetwynd's occupation?
George Chetwynd was a post officer.
Sources & further reading
· DBpedia: George Chetwynd (civil servant)
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). George Chetwynd. https://biography.guide/george-chetwynd/
MLA: "George Chetwynd." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/george-chetwynd/.
Chicago: "George Chetwynd." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/george-chetwynd/.
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