How a postcard spread a little sunshine eight decades late
We do love a postcard, and with so many holiday plans cancelled this year, we’re appreciating them even more. So we thought we’d bring some postal cheer with a story about a postcard that was also all the more enjoyable for being rather delayed. They do say the best things come to those who wait…
The postcard, featuring a black and white photo of a war memorial, was sent from Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex to a Mr and Mrs Richardson in East Dulwich, south London in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash and the same year John Logie Baird began his first experimental television transmissions from the BBC. It finally arrived at Lacon Road in 2008, the year of the bank bailout (for TV context the most-watched TV show that year was Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death).
The postcard reads simply:
Dear Auntie and Uncle,
Have arrived safely, got down about one o'clock, will write soon.
Love, May and Nel
But where did it get to in the intervening 79 years? Possibly it found its way accidentally into a nook or cranny somewhere at the Royal Mail and was rediscovered during renovations. The Royal Mail itself said at the time that it was more likely it had ‘re-entered the mail system’ all these years later so was perhaps misdelivered initially and then put in the post again. Mr and Mrs Richardson, whoever they might be, are presumably no longer with us but the current owner of the house held onto the postcard in case someone related to them ever wishes to claim it on their behalf.
You can read more about the joy of postcards in our August issue, on sale now.
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