John Tilley (civil servant)

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

[6] 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.

In 1864, when Sir Rowland Hill vacated the position of Secretary of the Post Office, Tilley was appointed to succeed him.

[11] However, this appears to be contradicted by the existence of a letter dated 8 August 1860 which suggests that Tilley had been appointed Secretary earlier.

[1][3] He was described by a colleague, Edmund Yates, in his Recollections and Experiences as a "shrewd, caustic and clever man, bred in the Post Office service and knowing it thoroughly; by no means a crocheteer, but with his public office experience, tempered by plenty of worldly knowledge, and as unimpressionable as an oyster"[1] Further description of his "remarkable" personality is given by one of Tilley's oldest official friends, but unidentified by name, who described him as "a hard man in official relations, yet genial.

He was truthful, courageous and unaffected, generally a sound judge of character, and always ready to admit and correct a mistake.

[18] 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.

[21] 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.