Posted on 02/20/2023 11:22:11 AM PST by Red Badger
A letter mailed in 1916 arrived at its intended address in London more than 100 years later. Photo courtesy of the Norwood Society/Twitter Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A London man who received a letter addressed to a former resident of his home was shocked to discover it had been mailed more than a century earlier in 1916.
Finlay Glen said the letter arrived a couple years ago at his address on Hamlet Road in south London, but it was addressed to an unfamiliar name and bore an extremely old stamp and postmark.
"We noticed that the year on it was '16. So we thought it was 2016," Glen told CNN. "Then we noticed that the stamp was a king rather than a queen, so we felt that it couldn't have been 2016."
The letter was addressed to "Mrs. Oswald Marsh" and was made out to "my dear Katie." The sender was identified as Christabel Mennel.
"Once we realized it was very old, we felt that it was OK to open up the letter," Glen said.
Glen recently took the letter to the Norwood Society, a local history group that publishes the quarterly Norwood Review.
"It's very unusual and actually quite exciting in terms of giving us a lead into local history and people who lived in Norwood, which was a very popular place for the upper middle classes in the late 1800s," Stephen Oxford, editor of the Norwood Review, told the BBC.
Mennel wrote in the letter that her family was vacationing in Bath, England.
It remains unclear why the letter took so long to arrive at its intended destination.
"We appreciate that people will be intrigued by the history of this letter from 1916, but have no further information on what might have happened," the Royal Mail said in a statement.
Another great episode.
“We hope this letter find you well, and looking great for 120 years old. As requested, the anti-aging cream will be sent by separate post”
Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night ... but maybe world war one?
My guess is somebody stole some mail, or neglected to complete their day’s work, between Bath where it was posted and London where it was supposed to go, and then a century later some descendant of the thief found a bag of letters in their shed or attic, and just threw them into a mailbox somewhere. Since they were valid from the time of posting, they just completed their journey.
Dear Mrs. Oswald Marsh
My name is Ubando Chawotel, senior assistant to the recently deceased respectable Nigerian Prince, Dr. Charlie Owando...
“We have been reach you about the extended warranty on your Model T.”
Mad Magazine in the 1960s had a story about undelivered letters. One was to Abraham Lincoln advising him to skip going to the Ford Theater to see Our American Cousin. “It’s a real loser.”
Caption:
Huma: “Anthony. Some mail came for you.”
And people want to trust the Post Office with our votes.
Did it arrive in the morning post of the afternoon post?
Better late than never, I guess.
RE: I want that stamp.
Me, too.
Published 1903.
Elementary, my dear Watson!.....................
Sounds like a case for the “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered” crew.
I just saw that episode recently. LOL.
The letter said: “Congratulations, you won the Irish Sweepstakes! You must claim the prize in person”.
I ordered a tie from Ebay 3 or 4 months ago, which I had forgotten until it arrived last week
I didn’t realize it was shipped from England.
Must’ve come over on the Mayflower
I doubt it was paid for with American money.
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