John Henniker Heaton

Sir John Henniker Heaton, 1st Baronet, KCMG, CB (18 May 1848 – 8 September 1914) was a United Kingdom Member of Parliament and a postal reformer and journalist in Australia.

He had further experience as editor of the Penny Post, Goulburn, and the Times, Parramatta, before joining the Australian Town and Country Journal at Sydney about the year 1871.

He also represented Tasmania at the international telegraphic conference held at Berlin, and made his first mark as a reformer by obtaining a reduction in the cost of cable messages to Australia.

Heaton made several visits to Australia where he had land and newspaper interests, and began to be recognized as its unofficial member in the House of Commons.

[2] In 1912 while on a visit to Australia, Heaton was made a baronet,[3] and on his return he was publicly welcomed at the Guildhall and given an illuminated album containing over a thousand signatures of well-known men.

The postmaster general, who could not be present, mentioned that in 1910 Heaton on his sixty-second birthday had sent him a list of 62 desirable postal reforms, several of which had already been carried into effect.