Thomas Wright Hill

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Thomas Wright Hill (Kidderminster 24 April 1763–Tottenham, 13 June 1851) was a schoolmaster and stenographer. He is credited as inventing the single transferable vote in 1821. His son, Rowland Hill, famous as the orginator of the modern postal system, introduced STV in 1840 into the world's first public election, for the Adelaide City Council, in which the principle of proportional representation was applied.

In 1791, Thomas Wright Hill courageously tried to save the apparatus of Dr Joseph Priestley from a mob in the Birmingham 'Church and King' riots - the offer was declined. In 1803, he bought a boys school at Hill Top, Birmingham and, in 1819, they moved to a new purpose-built school designed by Rowland at Hazelbrook. In 1821, he suggested the principle of proportional representation as it was informally practised in his school.

Enid Lakeman wrote in How Democracies Vote:

'...(Hill's) pupils were asked to elect a committee by standing beside the boy they liked best. This first produced a number of unequal groups, but soon the boys in the largest groups came to the conclusion that not all of them were actually necessary for the election of their favourite and some moved on to help another candidate, while on the other hand the few supporters of an unpopular boy gave him up as hopeless and transferred themselves to the candidate they considered the next best. The final result was that a number of candidates equal to the number required for the committee were each surrounded by the same number of supporters, with only two or three boys left over who were dissatisfied with all those elected. This is an admirable example of the use of STV.'

In 1827, Thomas Wright Hill moved the school to Bruce Castle, Tottenham, London.