Postcard sent to Shropshire boarding school finally arrives – after 66 years

A postcard addressed to a Shropshire boarding school has finally arrived – some 66 years after being sent.

The card, which was sent to Adcote School in Shropshire, where the redoubtable Queen Mary was a regular visitor, bears stamps from 1957 and is addressed to a ‘Miss D Kerr’.

Now Diane Browne, the current head of the school which was founded in 1907,  is appealing for former pupil ‘Miss D Kerr’ or her family to claim the card.

Sent by Miss Kerr’s mum, on one side of the card, there is a picture Penhelig Harbour, in the village of Aberdyfi (Aberdovey), in Gwynedd, Wales.

In the hand-written message on the back is a description of how Miss Kerr’s father had been fishing while on a trip away and ‘had no luck’.

The headmistress said the delivery of the card in the school’s morning post after 66 years ‘completely disorientated’ her.

‘When it dawned on me what had actually happened, I was in complete shock.’

While the modern postmark on the card is dated 21 April 2023, a pre-decimal blue 1d stamp appears with a green 1.5d stamp.

Each depicts Queen Elizabeth II and research shows they were issued after her Coronation in 1953.

There was, the school added, also an old postmark, suggesting the card had entered the postal system previously, although the date was proving too hard to read.

But going by the type of stamps used, and a price hike in late 1957, the suspected postage date was either June or July of that year. Just what happened after that is unclear.

Ms Browne praised ‘Royal Mail’s conscientious attitude’.

‘We wonder whether a worker found the card possibly when a piece of furniture was moved, and instead of tossing it aside, they have honoured the commitment to deliver it, although a little later than expected.’

The card is addressed to a ‘Miss Kerr’, and is signed ‘Mummy’. It discusses how the recipient’s father has had no luck while out fishing

But there is still detective work to be done to trace Miss D Kerr.

A search of admission registers at the all-girls school found she may be Denise Bronwen Kerr, who attended between 1957 and 1962.

Staff have appealed for help to trace her. She is thought to be 78, with a married surname of Miles.

‘We would love to know who Miss D Kerr is, and unite her with the postcard sent by her mum, all those years ago’ Ms Browne said.

‘If that postcard had been sent by my mum or dad, I would be thrilled to receive it, even after all this time.’

The Church of England private day and boarding school’s Latin motto is, perhaps fittingly, ‘Nisi Dominus Frustra’, which translates to ‘Without the Lord, everything is in vain’.

There are currently 222 pupils aged seven to 18, eighty olf them ‘boarders’.

The card was sent to Adcote School in Shropshire (pictured) which was founded in 1907. The redoubtable Queen Mary was a regular visitor

It is in a Grade I listed country house built in 1879 for Rebecca Darby, the widow of Alfred Darby.

The Darbys were the iron-master family who built Ironbridge.

In 2016 the school transferred from a charity to a limited company status, managed by IQ Schools Group, and owned by IQ Education (IQE), a Chinese backed education company based in Birmingham.

The school was founded on 18 January 1907 by Mrs Amy Gough, with two ‘day pupils’ and five ‘boarders’ in Glenmore House in the village of Doseley near Wellington, Shropshire.

In 1927 a private company was formed for the purchase of Adcote in Little Ness, five miles from Shrewsbury.