Letter delivered to Ipswich woman 54 years late

A woman has received a letter from her sister nearly 54 years after it was posted.

Jean Quennell sent the letter from London’s Post Office Tower – now the BT Tower – to Gill Milbourne in August 1966, but it only arrived last week.

Mrs Milbourne, from Ipswich, said she had “no idea at all” where the letter had been.

Royal Mail said it was probably “put back into the postal system by someone recently”.

Mrs Quennell had travelled from her home in Malawi to attend Mrs Milbourne’s wedding to Melvin in June 1966, and posted the letter during a trip to the capital.

It had four 3d stamps from the Tower on it, which Mrs Quenell had attached because her sister was collecting stamps at the time.

It contained a small Fly Air Malawi calendar for 1966.

“I think she just sent it to me and thought no more about it,” Mrs Milbourne said.

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Fortunately, the Milbournes have lived in the same house since they were married in June 1966.

“You can’t complain because I have got it, but the calendar is a bit out of date,” she said.

Royal Mail said it was “difficult to speculate what may have happened,” but that it was likely the letter “was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere”.

Britain in 1966

Gill Milbourne’s sister Jean posted the letter in 1966, but what was the world like then?

• In March, Labour’s Harold Wilson won a landslide victory to be returned as prime minister
• England won the football World Cup, beating West Germany 4-2 in the final
• The Beatles played their last conventional live concert in Britain at the Empire Pool (Wembley), alongside The Rolling Stones and The Who
• British Rail began full electric passenger train services on the West Coast Main Line.