A Postcard Dated 1903 And Addressed to A Woman Named Lydia Finally Arrived At Its Destination 121 Years Later, And The Recipients Are Trying To Track Down Her Family
Recently, a financial institution in Swansea, Wales, received a surprising postcard in the mail. The postcard featured a print of a stag standing beneath a starry night sky.
It was from someone named Ewart and was addressed to Lydia Davies, who lived at 11 Craddock Street, where the Swansea Building Society is now located.
The card was dated August 23, 1903, and finally reached its destination 121 years after it was sent. Employees were astonished to find it among their usual mail regarding mortgages and savings.
Now, the Swansea Building Society is working to uncover the origins of the postcard and trying to track down any living members of the Davies family.
The image on the card is a black-and-white print of a 19th-century painting called The Challenge by the English artist Edwin Henry Landseer.
Additionally, the stamp has an image of Edward VII, who was the king of the United Kingdom between 1901 and 1910.
The short handwritten message from Ewart is barely legible. He sent the card from the coastal Welsh town of Fishguard. The letter read:
“Dear L. I could not, it was impossible to get the pair of these. I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about ten [shillings as] pocket money not counting the train fare, so I’m doing alright. Remember me to Miss Gilbert and John, with love to all from Ewart.”
The letter shows that Ewart and Lydia were discussing something specific that she had the context to understand.
Mist – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
However, what exactly that was remains unclear. According to Henry Darby, the society’s communication manager, the note might refer to a pair of shoes.
Tracy Coleman, a researcher at the Royal Philatelic Society London, found that the postcard appears to be consistent with others from 1903, although she could not confirm it definitively.
“It looks to be a standard stamp with markings of that period, and there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about it. It is the sort of postcard that anyone can find many examples of at a stamp fair or even in charity shops,” Coleman said.
So, how did the postcard end up back in the mail? Darby believes someone may have purchased the card at an estate sale and decided to drop it in a mailbox to see what would happen. Officials at the Royal Mail, the U.K.’s postal service, agreed with the theory.
Further research has discovered that a man named John F. Davies once lived at 11 Craddock Street with his wife and six children.
Lydia was the oldest of the kids, and she would’ve been 16 years old at the time the postcard was sent.
During World War II, their neighborhood was bombed. Many structures were rebuilt after the war, including 11 Craddock Street.
It is unclear whether Lydia actually received the postcard in 1903. So far, the researchers have come into contact with a woman who may be Lydia’s grand-niece. Hopefully, the letter will soon be left in the hands of one of her relatives.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:News