 Chess was his favourite recreation; he also collected Australiana and at one stage owned the Endeavour journals of Sir Joseph Banks.In 1912 while on a visit to Australia, Heaton was made a baronet, and on his return he was publicly welcomed at the Guildhall and given an illuminated album containing over a thousand signatures of well-known men.The postmaster-general, who could not be present, mentioned that in 1910 Heaton on his sixty-second birthday had sent him a list of 62 desirable postal reforms, several of which had already been carried into effect.