After more than 100 years, a letter has arrived at its destination in Great Britain. The current resident of the London address, Finlay Glen, told the BBC on Thursday that he was “apparently quite surprised and confused”. It is not known why the letter, franked with a 1 pence stamp from King George V and postmarked in Bath in western England in February 1916, took so long to arrive. When asked, the Royal Mail said: “Incidents like this are very rare and we are unsure what happened in this case.”
It’s also unclear why Glen kept the letter in a drawer for two years after receiving it in 2021 before making it public. It is a criminal offense to open letters that are not addressed to yourself, said the 27-year-old. But when he realized the letter was from 1916 and not 2016, he thought it was only fair. “If I’ve committed a crime, I can only apologize,” Glen said. If the descendants of those involved get in touch, he would be happy to hand them the letter.
In it, Christabel Mennell, daughter of a tea entrepreneur, writes to her friend Katie, wife of London stamp dealer Oswald Marsh, while on holiday in Bath. She feels “miserable here with a very bad cold”.
