William Leader Maberly

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William Leader Maberly (1798–1885) spent most of his life as a British army officer and politician. In 1836, Maberly was appointed as joint secretary to the General Post Office, where he strongly opposed the introduction of the penny post, a plan championed by Rowland Hill to charge a fixed price for postage (as is now the normal practice in most of the world).

He was able to buy Shirley Park in Croydon and become a Member of Parliament, initially for Westbury (1819-1820) [1], then Northampton (1820-1830)[2], then Shaftesbury (1831-32)[3] and finally for Chatham 1832-1834.[4]

One of Maberly's principal secretaries during his time at the Post Office was the novelist Anthony Trollope, who later parodied Maberly as Sir. Boreas Bodkin in the novel Marion Fay.

In 1865, the Canadian Post Office Department Secretary William Dawson LeSueur named the settlement of Maberly, Ontario in Maberly's honour.