Postcard arrives at Kent home 42 years late in 'mystery' post office mix up

Samantha Williams, who now lives at the address in Elm Grove, said the postcard was a "mystery".

She said: “We would love to find the man it was addressed to and give it to him.

“They were obviously good friends and it may mean a lot to him.”

A Steve Padgett was the intended recipient of the letter.

The postcard included a handwritten message from somebody named “Gerry”.

Williams said one of her children initially thought it was a Christmas card after picking it up.

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She claimed: “It had been sent from a man called Gerry in Sydney and addressed to Steve Padgett or Padge, who we believe lived here with his parents in the 1980s.

“It's only got a 32 cent stamp on it, so maybe it's been stuck at a sorting office in Australia or in the UK for more than 40 years.”

The postcard featured an image of the Sydney Opera House.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "It is difficult to speculate what may have happened to this item of mail, but it is likely that it was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere.

"Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily.

"Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the card."

However, this is not the first time this year that a letter has arrived decades later than expected.

A flat on Hamlet Road in Crystal Palace received a letter written in February 1916 a few months ago.