WHEN staff of The Swansea Building Society received their mail a few Friday’s ago they were in for a surprise.
No not more enquiries about life changing injuries that might not have been their fault or more suspicious looking mail from a Nigerian Prince.
No, instead they received a postcard that from the date looked to have been sent over 120 years ago.
The postcard’s intended recipient was a Miss Lydia Davies with the following somewhat mysterious message written on it…
“Dear L.
“I could not, it was not possible to get the pair of these.
“I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home.
“I have got now about 10/- [shillings] as pocket money not including the train fare so I am doing alright.
“Remember me to Miss Gilbert and John.
“With love to all from Ewart.”
The greetings card, which was a black and white image of the artist Edwin Henry Landseer’s painting The Challenge, is believed to have been sent by a man called Ewart, with a postmark of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
The postmark was AU23 03, which would most likely have related to a date, 23 August 1903. The stamp used had an image of King Edward VII which would make it over 120 years old.
A spokesperson from Royal Mail said there’s a strong chance the postcard was found in a house clearance and put it back into circulation.
A family historian who contacted the building society after seeing an image of the postcard on Facebook said they could confirm that they found a 14-year-old Lydia at 11 Cradock Street in the census of 1901.
Incidentally, I worked for Royal Mail between 2009 and 2011 and now that we are still not on the subject, was voted Postman of the year in 2010. I can also confirm that 125 years is actually a fairly normal delivery time for a postcard irrespective of the distance it has to travel.
