A Chelmsford pensioner has been sent his dead wife's mail - eight years late

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The Royal Mail told Hugh Stringer the mail had come to light following an "internal investigation"

How long would you expect it to take for post sent to you to arrive through your letterbox?

Typically post tends to arrive within a few days, depending on the postage paid, with first class post expected to arrive the next working day, and second class post expected to arrive in two to three working days.

So if you were to receive post dated a few weeks beforehand, or even a few months beforehand, you would want to know the reason for such a delay.

Now what if your post did not turn up through your letterbox until eight years later?

That’s what has happened for a few people in Chelmsford last week.
https://i2-prod.essexlive.news/incoming/article2912542.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_HB_TMS_250519latemail_03.jpgHugh Stringer, 81, lives alone in his flat in Chelmsford. Last week he received a bundle of post in the mail addressed to his late wife Flo, who sadly passed away two years ago.

“My first thought was ‘what are they doing writing to Flo, when she’s been gone for two years’,” Hugh said.

“It wasn’t until I looked at the back and found the letter from the Royal Horticultural Society that I found the date, 2011.

“Then I found the letter from the post office saying sorry about it.”

Hugh and his wife Flo moved into their Chelmsford flat in 2003 and would have been married for 50 years last year.

Sadly, Flo died two years ago, aged 97, following an illness.

Along with the post addressed to his wife was a letter sent from Chelmsford Delivery Office apologising for the delayed delivery stating that the mail had “recently come to light following an internal investigation”.

However no details as to what had happened to the post were provided, leaving Hugh none the wiser as to why this post did not arrive for so long.

“I would like to know more for curiosity,” he said.

“Maybe a sack placed in a corner somewhere, or maybe a postman taken the post home, it’s hard to know what happened, they just said an internal investigation.”

This late delivery was not an isolated incident. One of Hugh’s neighbours also received post dating from 2011 addressed to the previous owner of the flat.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail recently discovered a number of historical mail items that were not delivered at the time of posting.

“We are in the process of returning this mail to customers and apologise for any inconvenience to impact customers.

“Every item of mail is important to us. We have launched an investigation into what has happened.”