/ 18 May 2006

Mystery invite delivered — 56 years on

Whoever George Green is, he now has a good excuse for standing up Gwen at Monty’s — 56 years ago.

That’s how long it took her handwritten letter to George to reach Trinity College in Cambridge, eastern England, where it arrived the other day, postmarked in London on March 3 1950.

“George, will meet at Monty’s next weekend,” it read when it was prised open by curious staff at the college. “Is 2pm acceptable? Love Gwen.”

“It is a bit of a mystery,” said David Hales, head porter at Trinity College, which is part of the University of Cambridge. “We are going through our archives to see if we can find out any more about it.

“It is possible that George was a student, but we haven’t got a clue whether Monty’s was a place, or perhaps a friend’s house.”

Royal Mail spokesperson James Taylor said: “As it has a postmark, it is extremely unlikely that it has been in our system all this time.

“A postmark shows it has already been through, so it must have been put back again only recently. It is possible that it may have got caught up in a large envelope and sent to a wrong address. It is certainly a strange one.” — AFP