An envelope that was sent from the United States finally made it to the UK 80 years after it was sent, but the letter it contained is missing.
The envelope, which is dated 5 October 1942, was discovered by manager Kevin Beattie, 39, when he arrived at The Sands Meadows nursing home in Hest Bank, Lancashire.
He said he immediately realized it was “not a normal letter” and launched an appeal on social media to try to find out who the envelope belonged to.
Kevin later found out it was from Phillip Tattersall, who was living in Florida at the time while training for the British Flying Training School, but sadly died in 1996.
Phillip is believed to have tried to send the letter from Florida to his parents, Cornelius and Ethel Tattersall, who lived on the property that is now the nursing home.
The envelope is dated October 5, 1942 and has just been delivered, 80 years later.
Phillip Tattersall, pictured with his daughter Phillipa in 1988, had sent the letter in 1942 to her parents.
Although the actual letter was missing, Kevin said that when he opened it and “saw how old the envelope was,” he realized it was something he had “never seen” before.
He said: ‘If the letters have arrived at the house damaged then they come in a clear plastic bag and they just mentioned if there is anything of value contact Royal Mail.
“But once we opened it up and saw how old the envelope and stamp were, we realized it wasn’t a normal letter we would have received.
‘We’ve never seen anything like this locally, but I’ve seen something before someone got a letter from over a hundred years ago.
But we had never seen one before.
After seeing Kevin’s appeal, Phillipa’s daughter Phillipa and granddaughter Tessa contacted him with more information about the envelope.
They revealed that when he returned from Florida, Phillip became a flight lieutenant in the RAF and later served in northern Germany in World War II and flew a fighter-bomber.
Phillip married his wife Ruth and lived in Morecambe, Lancshire, before immigrating to Canada and having four children.
His daughter Phillipa, who lives on an island near Vancouver, Canada, said: “I’ve been thinking about the power of social media and how quickly information is passed on to all of us.”
‘Certainly much faster than that envelope delivered to The Sands Meadow.
“I recognized my father’s handwriting as soon as I saw the envelope.”
She added: ‘The envelope likely contained a letter updating his parents on his life during training in Florida.
“He always kept in close contact with them throughout his life and would visit them.
“My father, Philip, was a great storyteller and I would be delighted to have this information shared.”
Although the actual letter was missing, Kevin said that when he opened it and “saw the age of the envelope,” he realized it was something he had “never seen” before.
Phillip is believed to have tried to send the letter from Florida to his parents Cornelius (pictured here when he was younger) and Ethel Tattersall, who lived on the property that is now the nursing home.
Kevin contacted Royal Mail to find out why the envelope was only delivered now, but said he thinks it has “fallen through the gaps”.
He said: “They didn’t know where it had really been, so whether they found it behind a desk while they were cleaning or if it was just on a shelf somewhere.”
‘It’s just fallen through the gaps really.
“Unfortunately, they couldn’t tell us which depot it had come from either.
“But you can also tell from the age of the envelope that it looks like it has been somewhere where the sun had been on the envelope.”
“It wasn’t white paper, there was some yellow in the paper, so it looked aged.”