Pensioner gets letter from her sister 54 YEARS after it was posted from Post Office Tower in London

A pensioner was shocked to receive a letter from her sister nearly 54 years after it was posted from the top of the Post Office Tower.

Gill Milbourne, 74, and her husband Mel are baffled about how the letter came to be delivered around 19,671 days late to their home.

Her sister Jean Quennell posted it on August 7, 1966, while on a visit to the Post Office Tower – now known as the BT Tower – in London just ten months after it was opened.

But it is a mystery why it took so long to finally arrive in the post last Wednesday at Mr and Mrs Milbourne’s semi-detached home in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Mrs Quennell, now 83, posted the first day cover letter because she thought her sister would be interested in the commemorative Post Office Tower stamps on it.

Gill and her husband Mel received the letter at their Ipswich home which they bought in 1966

Mrs Quennell, now 83, (seen left) posted the first day cover letter because she thought her sister would be interested in the commemorative Post Office Tower stamps

The letter contained only a laminated 1966 calendar card for airline Air Malawi as it was the only thing that she had in her handbag at the time.

It was posted just six weeks after Mr and Mrs Milbourne moved into their brand new house – bought for just £2,900 – following their wedding in St John’s church, Ipswich, on June 25, 1966.

At the time, newlywed Mrs Milbourne was a clerk in the roads and bridges department at County Hall in Ipswich while her husband was a carpenter.

The couple went on to have two children, five grandchildren and four great grandchildren are still living in the same house today.

Mrs Milbourne said: ‘I am quite careful with the post due to coronavirus so when some letters arrived last Wednesday, I left them on my worktop.

The letter contained only a laminated 1966 calendar card for airline Air Malawi as it was the only thing that her sister had in her handbag at the time

A separate postmark dated last Tuesday showed the letter had somehow re-entered the postal system after a long period of being lost, before finally being successfully posted

‘I eventually got round to opening this one letter and when I turned it over I recognised my sister’s handwriting. But I realised it wasn’t her current writing. It was what her writing used to look like.

‘When I opened it I saw the 1966 calendar card and I thought, ‘Why has she posted this to me now?’

‘Then I looked at the four 3D stamps in old money, and I still thought it must have been some old letter which she had got her son to drop off.

‘So I rang her up to ask why she had put the letter out through her door and she didn’t know what I was talking about.’

Mrs Milbourne then saw the original postmark dated August 7, 1966, along with a stamp, saying: ‘Posted at the POST OFFICE TOWER.’

A separate postmark dated last Tuesday showed it had somehow re-entered the postal system.

The mark stated that it gone through the Royal Mail’s South East Anglia sorting centre at Chelmsford, Essex, the day before it arrived at her home.

Mrs Milbourne said it was no surprise to see the souvenir of Malawi inside the letter as her sister had lived in the African country in the 1960s when her late husband Don was working there as an accountant.

Mrs Milbourne and husband Mel pictured on their wedding day in June 1966, shortly before the date on which her sister originally posted the letter, some 54 years ago

She said: ‘They had been out there for a three years and had come back to Ipswich for a visit before being posted there again. Their visit coincided with our wedding, and my sister was one of my bridesmaids.

‘Jean told me that she could remember going to the Post Office Tower on a trip to London in the August. It had only just opened so it was quite a big thing to visit.

‘At the time I was collecting stamps and first day covers and she used to send me them from all the places she visited to add to my collection.

‘I guess they had a special facility to post letters from the tower as it was a bit of a novelty. They even had special stamps with pictures of the tower.

‘We think that my sister popped the Malawi calendar card with a picture of lions on it into the envelope because that was the only suitable thing she had in her handbag.

‘I knew it could not have come from anyone else. The letter was still in excellent condition considering its age.’

Mr Milbourne said: ‘The really incredible thing is that we are still living in the same house today so it found Gill in the end. Who knows where it has been all these years?’

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: ‘It is difficult to speculate what may have happened to this item of mail, but it is likely that it was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere.

‘Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily.

‘Once an item is in the postal system, then it will be delivered to the address on the letter.’