121-year-old postcard delivered in the mail

When staff at a building society in Swansea received their mail on Friday, they were surprise by what they discovered.

In among their usual savings and mortgage-related deliveries was a postcard dating back more than 120 years.

Swansea Building Society celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, but the card predates its establishment by another couple of decades.

Henry Darby, the society’s marketing and communications officer, told Sky News the unexpected arrival was “exciting”.

“It’s a little bit spooky, I’m not a huge fan of touching it because it feels like an antique. It feels like it needs to be in Perspex or something,” he said.

“But there’s lots of great stories on our socials, lots of comments we’re getting, and people clearly really passionate about the city and what it once was and what stories there are to be unlocked.”

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Among those who have contacted the building society is a relative, believed to be the great niece of Miss Lydia Davies, the postcard’s intended recipient.

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“We haven’t got to the bottom of how it ended up back in the circulation of the Royal Mail and how it came to us with a stamp that is the best part of 125 years old, it’s got Kind Edward [VII] on it,” Mr Darby added.

“So we’re still intrigued by how it’s gone back into the system. We guessed it may be someone was doing a house clearance, guessed it was maybe still a house and thought the owner may like it as a keepsake.

“It’s come back into our ownership and we want to make sure it gets to the right place, be it the local archive, or if possible Lydia’s surviving family.”

A black and white image of the artist Edwin Henry Landseer’s painting The Challenge, the postcard is believed to have been sent by a man called Ewart, with the postmark of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. He references two others called Gilbert and John.

The postmark is marked AU23 03, which would likely relate to the date 23 August 1903.

A family historian who replied to the building society after it posted the picture on Facebook said they had found a 14-year-old Lydia at 11 Cradock Street in the census of 1901.

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A spokesperson for the Royal Mail said it was likely the postcard was “put back into [its] system rather than being lost in the post for over a century”.

“When an item is in our system, we are under obligation to deliver it to the correct address,” they added.

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