Briton Finlay Glen, 27, received an unexpected parcel at his south London home: an envelope postmarked Bath and with the head of George V. The letter, dated February 1916, was ‘received’ more than 100 years late. The incident was reported to CNN by Glen on Thursday (16).
“We realized that the year was 16. We thought it was 2016. “We realized the seal was a king instead of a queen, so we had a feeling it couldn’t be 2016,” Finlay Glen told CNN.
The letter was written by Christabel Mennel, daughter of tea merchant Henry Tuke Mennel. She and her family were holidaying in Bath in the west of England, but the envelope was postmarked ‘Sydenham’, an area of southeast London. The letter reportedly arrived at Glen’s home in 2021.
The girl wanted to correspond with her “dear Katie,” to whom the envelope was addressed. Katie was the wife of a highly respected local tycoon, Oswald Marsh, who dealt in postage stamps.
Through the newspaper, Mennel complained to her friend that she was “very unhappy here with a very bad cold.”
Back then, more than 10 years before the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, the countries of Europe were locked in the First World War.
At the address where Finlay Glen now resides was the tycoon’s mansion.
Oxford told CNN that the borough of South London was a busy hub of commercial activity in the early 20th century and many middleclass people moved to the area at the time.
Although he received the envelope in 2021, Glen claimed that he only recently sent the material to the appropriate authorities for further research.
A Royal Mail spokesman told CNN such incidents can happen, but if they did, they can’t say exactly what would have happened.