Sir Henry Cole was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card

Christmas card

A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...

 in 1843.
Henry Cole was born in Bath, and educated at Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

 in London. He began his career at the age of 15 at the Public Record Office

Public Record Office

The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...

, where he became Assistant Keeper and was instrumental in reforming the organisation and preservation of the British national archives.

From 1837 to 1840, he worked as an assistant to Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters...

 and played a key role in the introduction of the Penny Post

Penny Post

The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny.-London Penny Post:In England, the Post Office had a monopoly on the collection and carriage of letters between post towns but there was no delivery system until the London Penny Post was...

.