Lost Post: Postcard arrives in Liverpool 77 years after it was sent

Post can sometimes take a while to be delivered or get lost, but imagine receiving a postcard that was sent 77 years ago.

Bill Caldwell was 18 years old and in his first week of training in the Royal Navy when he sent a postcard to his uncle in Liverpool.

The postcard is postmarked 1943, but it has only just arrived at Bill’s childhood home, where his uncle also lived.

The Royal Mail said it was likely the card had been reposted recently.

Family handout

Bill Caldwell’s postcard has only just been delivered after 77 years

Bill was at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint, Cornwall, when he wrote to his uncle Fred saying he was “in blue at last”.

The front of the postcard shows a picture of the HMS Raleigh figurehead with recruits marching past.

Relatives still live in the house where the postcard was sent so luckily they could tell Bill’s children about it!

Bill’s adult children said their dad, who died 25 years ago, tried to join the Navy when he was 15 years old but had to wait until he was 18.

His daughter Joanna Creamer said:”It was the most surreal thing on a Friday night to suddenly read a postcard that dad had written 77 years ago when he was training to be a sailor in the Navy.”

Family handout

In the postcard Bill wrote: “Well I am in blue at last. I did not think it would be like this – you don’t get much time for yourself, do you?

“But I like it alright. I will write a letter to you all when I get half a chance so will you hold on a bit? I have 19 weeks here yet.

“Give my love to everyone. Love, Bill.”

Bill’s son said it was “wonderful” to receive the postcard which he thought said “so much between the lines”.

The Royal Mail are not sure why the postcard took decades to arrive but think it’s likely someone put it back into the post recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere.