Sir John Henniker Heaton, 1st Baronet

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

Heaton was the only son of Lieutenant Colonel John Heaton and his wife, Elizabeth Anne née Henniker, and was born at Rochester, Kent, England. He was educated at Kent House School, Rochester, and King's College London.

Heaton found employment at first as a station hand and then joined the staff of the Cumberland Mercury, Parramatta. 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. With this job he came under the influence of the Journal's proprietor Samuel Bennett, who Heaton knew as "the best friend I ever had"; on 16 July 1873 he married Bennet's daughter, Rose.

In 1879 he published The Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time. In 1880 he stood for parliament for the electorate of Young, and was defeated by a few votes. In the following year he went to England and represented New South Wales as a commissioner at the Amsterdam Exhibition of 1883. 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 settled back in London in 1884 and at the general election held in 1885 was returned as Conservative member for Canterbury. He held this seat for 25 years, and became well known in the House of Commons for the special interest he showed in postal questions. In 1886 he moved a resolution inviting the government to negotiate with other governments with a view to the establishment of universal penny post. It was defeated, but he succeeded in 1890 in obtaining a reduction in the rate between Great Britain and Australia to twopence halfpenny. In 1898 Imperial penny postage came in except for Australia and New Zealand, who would not agree to it until 1905. It was extended to America in 1908 but still Heaton was not content, and to the end of his days continued to advocate its extension to other countries.

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