http://tinyurl.com/g7zjvPOSTCARD LAY UNREAD FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY
11:00 - 04 September 2006
A postcard delivered to an Westcountry home has finally been read - more than 100 years after it was delivered.
The card, sent by Miss Mary Pemberton, first headmistress of the old Bishop Blackall School, Exeter, was delivered to a house in Thornton Hill in the city in the summer of 1896.
The Victorian postman slipped the card through the letterbox - but unknown to him it fell through a gap in the door and came to rest in the base, where it stayed, unknown of, unread and forgotten.
Miss Pemberton went on to live a long and happy life in the house until her death in 1931. The postcard was there when the new headmistress, Miss S Fryer, moved in - and was still there when she died in 1950.
And it would still be there today but for Kerrin Lyons, his wife Ginny and their three children, Tom, Joe and Ben.
The family moved into the old house three years ago and have been renovating it ever since.
One of the last jobs was revamping the old front door, and when Mr Lyons took the bottom bit of wood off the postcard popped out. "It is postmarked 1896," he said. "It must never have been read and has sat there for more than 100 years. It is amazing to find it.
"Miss Pemberton appears to have been on holiday and sent the card to her housemaid or whoever was looking after the house in her absence.
"It refers to a Mr Thornton - most probably the man after whom the street is named - and warns of youngsters stealing the plums and the need to ensure some are available for Mr Thornton."
Mr Lyons, a designer and architect, and his wife, who runs her own catering business, Ginny Lyons Catering, plan to frame the fascinating card.
http://tinyurl.com/2oxmz6Postcard delivered 90 years too late
By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/02/2007
When Private Walter Butler posted a card to his sweetheart from the trenches in the First World War, neither thought too much about it when it failed to arrive.
Pte Butler, who was fighting on the Western Front with the Dorset Regiment, went on to marry his girlfriend, Amy Hicks, and the pair lived long and happy lives in Chippenham, Wilts.
Last week the card mysteriously reappeared when Martin Kay, a postman, found it had been placed in his delivery sack. With Pte Butler and his wife now dead, he tracked down their only daughter, Joyce Hulbert, 86, and delivered it, 90 years too late. Mrs Hulbert said: "I would love to know where it has been all this time."
Christmas card arrives 93 years late
Fri Dec 14, 10:35 PM ET
OBERLIN, Kan. - A postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was mailed in 1914, but its journey was slower than Christmas. It just arrived in northwest Kansas.
The Christmas card was dated Dec. 23, 1914, and mailed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, apparently from her cousins in Alma, Neb.
It's a mystery where it spent most of the last century, Oberlin Postmaster Steve Schultz said. "It's surprising that it never got thrown away," he said. "How someone found it, I don't know."
Ethel Martin is deceased, but Schultz said the post office wanted to get the card to a relative.
That's how the 93-year-old relic ended up with Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law. She said she believed the card had been found somewhere in Illinois.
"That's all we know," she said. "But it is kind of curious. We'd like to know how it got down there."
The card was placed inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin — the one-cent postage of the early 20th century wouldn't have covered it, Martin said.
"We don't know much about it," she said. "But wherever they kept it, it was in perfect shape."
hallybods said:A friend was telling me that she found stacks of mail that had been dumped in her mother's garden last week. It contain hospital appointments, medicine and letters that did have cheques in them.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -late.htmlA letter sent by a British soldier during World War II has arrived at its destination over 64 years late, after it was delivered by Royal Mail to an RAF base.
The letter, hand-written on American Red Cross paper, was posted by Serviceman Charles Fleming to a woman identified only as 'my dearest', on March 20 1945.
It was found by staff at the RAF Lakenheath near Brandon, in Suffolk inside a new envelope, after the original was damaged and lost, along with a note from Royal Mail with the words 'found loose in post please direct if possible.'
It is believed that employees at Royal Mail's sorting centre in Peterborough forwarded the 64-year-old letter to staff at the base, which acts as a European station for the US Air Force.
Military personnel also found three photographs inside the envelope which included a portrait picture of Fleming, a picture of his regiment and a picture of him in Florence, Italy.
The two-page letter, signed 'Charles', has writing on both sides, and offers information about life in a military camp, or possibly a hospital, in Italy.
In the letter Fleming offered to buy his 'dearest' a pair of glasses to help her with her 'night work', and revealed how he had lost weight, topping the scales at nine stone.
He added that he was writing the letter on ARC paper because he has left his usual writing material at another base.
The letter also described entertainment at the camp which included 'pictures or concerts' and the fact a 'convivial evening seems to act as some type of safety valve.'
He joked: 'Don't get the idea I am hors de combat with an American nurse holding my hand!'
Today baffled American staff at the RAF base appealed for Fleming's family to come forward.
RAF Commander at Lakenheath, Jerry Neild said the letter was beautifully written and should be returned to the veteran's family if possible.
He said: 'It's a really lovely letter representative of the age. We believe it came from a British serviceman but it is a complete mystery as to who he is.
'It appears to be part of a series of letters and was posted to us here randomly, simply because it didn't have its original envelope and we have an American connection.
'We think it has come from the Royal Mail sorting centre in Peterborough which is where most of our mail passes through.
'This letter and photographs really are part of history and we are appealing to the public to help us track him or his family down so we can pass it on.'
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said it was impossible for the item to have been in their system for more than 60 years.
She said: 'The item would not have been in our system for that length of time and the most likely explanation is that it was recently reposted into Royal Mail.'
Although technically an RAF station, Lakenheath hosts United States Air Force unit the 48th Fighter Wing and American personnel.
It has hosted US Air Force and its staff since 1948 and is part of the US's strategic air force permanently stationed in Europe.
I've had the impression that antique postcards can be quite pricey, so reposting them might be an expensive hobby! Especially as you might never see the results of your prank.rev_dino said:Quite a few of the comments over at the DM suggest that perhaps the postcard WAS originally delivered then acquired by a antiques dealer after the recipient's death. Then perhaps someone bought it and popped in the post as a joke.
Dear Santa Letter sent 100 years ago found up chimney
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 41785.html
MICHAEL O'REGAN and PAMELA DUNCAN
Wed, Dec 21, 2011
IT MAY have been slightly scorched over the years but a letter to Santa written 100 years ago, which was later discovered in a Dublin fireplace, has the magic of Christmas written all over it.
On Christmas Eve 1911, a brother and sister, who signed their names, “A or H Howard”, penned their personally designed letter to Santa with their requests for gifts and a good luck message at their home in Oaklands Terrace, Terenure (or Terurnure, as the children spelled it) in Dublin.
They placed it in the chimney of the fireplace in the front bedroom so that Santa would see it as he made his way into the Howard household in the early hours of the morning.
The letter was discovered by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, when he was installing central heating in 1992.
Since then, he has retained it as a souvenir of another time and place but with the stamp of childhood innocence which still exists today.
The message to Santa was warm but explicit.
“I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee.”
Ownership of the house changed over the decades, with the Byrne family moving there in 1961, but the letter survived.
“At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side,” said John Byrne who works in the building industry.
“The letter was found on one of the shelves.”
The letter remained remarkably intact given the passage of time and was only slightly burned from fires set in the house over the years.
As well as the requests for gifts from Santa the letter also contains drawings and a message of “Good Luck” to Santa from the children.
According to the 1911 census there were three children living at the address in the year in which the letter was written.
The youngest of them, Hannah, who was 10 at the time, and Fred (presumably short for Alfred) who was seven, fit in with the initials on the letter.
A third child, a 13-year-old called Lily, is also listed.
The Howard family were all born in England, including parents Fred Hamer Howard, an “under manager” in a plumber merchants, and his wife Mary Elizabeth. They listed their religion as Church of Ireland.
Dear Santa: early Christmas gift as man realises his mother is 100-year-old letter's author
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 80171.html
EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY
Thu, Dec 22, 2011
THE SPIRIT of Christmas past turned up unannounced for Victor Bartlem yesterday in the form of a 100-year-old letter from his late mother, Hannah “Annie” Howard, to Santa.
The slightly scorched missive, dating from Christmas Eve 1911, when Hannah was 10 years old, was discovered up a chimney in a house in Terenure, Dublin, as reported in The Irish Times yesterday.
Sitting at home in Bangor, Co Down, yesterday while his wife read out details of the story, Mr Bartlem initially failed to make any connection between himself and the young girl in the story. Even when the address on the letter – Oaklands Terrace, Terenure – was mentioned, he put it down to coincidence.
It was only when he heard the name Hannah that he realised the girl in the letter was his mother. “I simply couldn’t believe it. I never knew about this letter. I never even knew it existed.”
His mother’s carefully crafted Christmas wishlist, topped with a good luck message for Santa, was discovered in the chimney by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, when he was installing central heating in 1992. He kept the letter as a memento of times past, deciding only to publicise its existence this year to mark its 100th anniversary.
In her letter, Hannah, like many 10-year-olds, is quite explicit about what she wants from Santa.
“I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee.”
As the letter was signed “A or H Howard”, it was initially thought to be jointly from Hannah and her younger brother, Alfred.
However, Mr Bartlem confirmed his mother Hannah went by the name “Annie”, hence the “A or H Howard” on the letter, a clever insurance policy in case Santa got confused.
Hannah was born on Christmas Day 1900. The excitement of having her birthday on the same day as Santa’s arrival must have been considerable.
Mr Bartlem said his mother attended the Zion Church of Ireland school in Rathgar before going on to marry Alfred Bartlem in 1931, with whom she had two sons, Howard and Victor. She and Alfred moved to a house on Lomond Avenue, Fairview, shortly after they married, where she died in 1978.
Mr Bartlem said his mother had been extremely creative, excelling at various forms of needlework and later at woodwork. She was also an expert baker of cakes and other confectionery, which may go some way to explaining her toffee-themed letter to Mr Claus.
Hannah’s niece, Iris Murphy, who lives in Stillorgan, Dublin, was also alerted to the letter’s existence only yesterday, when her daughter in Tasmania read about it on irishtimes.com.
Ms Murphy described her aunt as a “very happy-go-lucky person with a great sense of humour”.
Hannah’s elder sister, Lily, who was 13 at the time the letter was sent, died in 1996, aged 99.
Isle of Wight postcard arrives at Leicestershire home 45 years late
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-le ... e-22120023
The postcard was sent in 1968 from the Isle of Wight
A holiday greeting from the past landed on the doormat of a Leicestershire home when a postcard arrived - 45 years late.
Martin Morgan-Taylor made the unexpected discovery, which has two postmarks, one in the Isle of Wight on 31 July 1968 and a second from Peterborough on 8 April 2013.
The picture is of Carisbrooke Castle, on the island, and the stamp cost 8d.
Mr Morgan-Taylor would now like to trace the sender.
"This postcard arrived today after 45 years. I thought that's absolutely incredible. You hear about these things in the media, well I'm hoping everybody else might be interested," Mr Morgan-Taylor said.
'Not Margaret Thatcher'
The holiday greeting was sent to the the Stones family who are thought to have moved out of the Leicester house in the mid 1990s.
But clues to who sent it or what they did on their trip are sparse.
Mr Morgan-Taylor said: "It would have been nice if it could have [said] something really historic like 'Just had a look at one of those new colour TV screens'. All we have is 'From Margaret and Ron'."
He said he assumed it had become lost at a sorting office in Peterborough and had recently been discovered down the back of a piece of equipment.
He is now hoping to trace the enigmatic couple but is not holding out much hope.
"I think we can assume it's not Margaret Thatcher but other than that, we can't really say very much," he said.
Valerie Antoine, Royal Mail spokeswoman, said: "It is extremely unlikely that this item of mail was in our system all this time.
"It is difficult to speculate what may have happened, but almost certainly it was put back in a postbox very recently, as we regularly check all our sorting offices and machines are cleared."
LETTER DELIVERED AFTER 83 YEARS
USA: A letter written by a Maine school teacher in 1931 to her mother 240km away has finally been delivered — 83 years later.
Miriam McMichael had sent the nine-page letter from Houlton to Dollena McMichael in Pittsfield when she was 23 years old.
Both women have since died.
The letter was lost and only recently found at the Pittsfield post office. Postal worker Michelle Rowell found it and knew it was old because of the 2c stamp.
The postmaster and town officials tracked down the family, and the letter is now in the hands of 69-year-old Ann MacMichael, of Cornville, Miriam’s niece and Dollena’s granddaughter.
The spelling of the family name has changed.
MacMichael says the irony is that the writer apologises for not writing sooner.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 74128.html
Book order takes 20 years for delivery
A Florida woman who ordered a set of Dr. Seuss books for her granddaughter said the package finally arrived -- 20 years later.
Vera Walker of Orlando said her granddaughter was only 4 years old when she ordered the set of books in 1998. She was an adult with a 5-year-old son of her own by the time the package arrived at Walker's home.
The post office explained to Walker that the box had been found stuck inside an old mailbox.
Walker said the books arrived just in time for her to read them to her great-grandson, who she said is enjoying the classic tomes.