John Tilley

Sir John Tilley KCB (20 January 1813 – 18 March 1898) was Secretary to the General Post Office of the United Kingdom.

Early life and family Tilley's father had died before he was born. His mother was Elizabeth Fraser, daughter of Thomas Fraser of Lane Son & Fraser (sometimes spelt 'Frazer'). He was educated privately at Bromley, Kent.

Career Tilley entered the service of the General Post Office on 11 February 1829 as a clerk in the Secretary's Office in Lombard Street, London,

He remained with the Post Office throughout his working life, rising from clerk to Secretary, the position he held on his retirement at the age of sixty-seven in 1880.

Tilley spent ten years as Surveyor of the Northern District of England, moving to Lytham (now known as Lytham St. Annes), Lancashire where he organised the distribution of mail Tilley's wife Cecilia was at that time suffering from consumption, and brief mention is made of the sad family circumstances Tilley was experiencing at this time, which made him happy to return to London.

In 1854 a Commission of Enquiry into the establishment of the Post Office was set up which brought about a number of changes in the London establishment. The Postmaster General of the day, Lord Canning, sent Tilley to Edinburgh and Dublin to revise the establishments there. Tilley is credited with having ensured that the clerks, sorters and postmen received better pay.

Throughout Tilley's time at the Post Office, his close friendship with his brother-in-law, Anthony Trollope, continued.

They had five children, of whom only one survived to adulthood. Frances Trollope Tilley (1839–1851) Cecilia Isabel Tilley (1840–1850)

John and Cecilia Tilley lived for a number of years at Carlton Hill, Penrith,

On 18 May 1850, Tilley married secondly, at Kensington, Mary Anne Partington, the daughter of Thomas Partington They had one child, Arthur Augustus Tilley (1851–1942), a Classical scholar who became a lecturer in Roman History at King's College, Cambridge, and a historian. John Anthony Cecil Tilley (1869–1952), who joined the Foreign Office and became British Ambassador to Brazil and later Japan.

Death

After a long illness, Tilley died on 18 March 1898 at his home, 73 St George's Square, London, where he had lived since 1856. 1880: Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath