A handwritten postcard posted through the British Mail in 1903 was delivered to its destination August 16, 2024, 121 years after it was sent. The person it was addressed to was no longer there; in fact, there isn’t even a home there anymore. It’s the headquarters of the Swansea Building Society. Staffers found the postcard in the pile of regular mail and had the sharp eye to notice the date of the postmark.

The postcard has an evocative black-and-white print of The Challenge, an 1844 painting by English Romantic artist Edwin Henry Landseer depicting a stag on a beach in a wintery landscape with a sky full of stars. It is addressed to Miss Lydia Davies at 11 Cradock Street in Swansea, Wales. It was sent by a fellow named Ewart from Fishguard, a town on the Wales coast.

The note reads:

Dear L. I could not, it was impossible to get the pair of these. I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about ten/- [shillings] as pocket money not counting the train fare, so I’m doing alright. Remember me to Miss Gilbert & John, with love to all from Ewart.

According to Henry Darby, communications manager for the Swansea Building Society, 11 Cradock Street used to have private homes, but they were destroyed by bombs in World War II. The current office building was built on the street after the war.

A spokesperson for the Royal Mail, the U.K.’s postal service, said in an email: “It is likely that this postcard was put back into our 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.”

The Swansea Building Society hopes to get in touch with one of Lydia Davies’ relatives, and has posted about their surprise mail on social media. The replies on their Facebook post include one from a possible great-niece and a whole bunch of rather fascinating research by interested folks into the identities of Lydia and Ewart.