By Linn’s Staff

The Royal Philatelic Society London has awarded its 2021 Crawford medal to James L. Grimwood-Taylor for his two-volume book International Postal Reforms, published by the society in 2020.

The society awards the Crawford medal each year for the most valuable and original contribution to the study and knowledge of philately published in book form.

In the first volume of Grimwood-Taylor’s new examination of the history of international postal reforms, Postal Reforms and the Historical Background to the Postage Stamp 1550 to 1839, the author studies in detail Rowland Hill’s 1837 post office reform.

This volume places Hill’s work in its true historical context and traces the origins of the high postal rates that he sought to reduce.

The second volume, The Birth of the Postage Stamp and its International Effects 1840 to 1898, traces the story of the introduction of cheap postage in Britain and around the world following the August 1839 Postage Act that introduced uniform penny postage.

Grimwood-Taylor has been a stamp collector from the age of 3 and a full-time professional postal historian since the age of 22.

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