George E. Smith
Precise details of the fraud are impossible to determine with certainty. From investigations carried out by Dr. Ian Ray, it seems likely that a head clerk named George E. Smith colluded with his subordinates T. H. Wright and Benjamin Hind to affix the bogus adhesives to forms. Almost four decades after the known dates when most of stamps were sold, Wright and Hind had died, but Smith was still alive, having retired from the post office in 1870s on the grounds of ill health. In 1910, A. J. Waldegrave, formerly Deputy Comptroller and Accountant General to the Post Office, interviewed Smith. Details of that interview have never been made public.