‘We Are Uncertain What Happened,’ Says Royal Mail

A letter written during World War I has finally arrived at a flat in Crystal Palace, south London, more than 100 years later.

According to the BBC, the envelope, sent in February 1916, bears a postmark from the English city of Bath and includes a one-penny stamp featuring the head of King George V.

The letter finally arrived two years ago at the apartment of theatre director Finlay Glen, 27, who told the outlet he was confused when he saw it in the mail and only recently gave the letter to a local historical society.

“We were obviously pretty surprised and mystified as to how it could have been sat around for more than 100 years,” he said.

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The mysterious letter was written to Katie Marsh, wife of local stamp magnate Oswald Marsh, by her friend Christabel Mennell and describes her visit to a sanatorium in Bath where her father was a wheelchair user, per the Evening Standard.

The envelope also has a stamp from the Sydenham sorting office, which was in operation for over a century before it closed down in recent years. This led to speculation that the letter was found and placed in the day’s post when the office was cleared out, Glen told the newspaper.

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According to CNN, a Royal Mail spokesperson acknowledged that these kinds of incidents are rare.

“We are uncertain what happened in this instance,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate that people will be intrigued by the history of this letter from 1916, but we have no further information on what might have happened.”

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Stephen Oxford, the editor of the local history magazine the Norwood Review, finds the arrival of the letter to be “quite exciting” for historians interested in tracing the history of the area’s inhabitants, per the Standard.

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Glen told the BBC that if relatives of the letter’s sender, or relatives of the intended recipient, wanted the letter, he would gladly give it to them.

“It’s an amazing piece of their family history that has turned up,” he said, “if they want to, they can come round.”