A nearly 80-year-old undelivered letter was recently found in the mail stream by a Canada Post sorter in New Glasgow, N.S.
As reported by the New Glasgow News, the cover is franked with a 1937 three-cent stamp depicting King George and includes a Halifax datestamp showing it entered the mail system on June 3, 1941. It’s addressed to a “Mr. Archie Hubley,” of Westville, N.S.; however, because of contemporary postal regulations, no address or postal code, the latter of which wasn’t introduced until 1971, is included.
It was sent by the Canadian Legion War Services but remained unseen until earlier this year, when Canada Post employee Liz Koszkulics rediscovered what’s the oldest piece of undelivered mail she’s ever found.
After contacting the local Legion, whose president and vice-president found one of Hubley’s relatives, the letter was opened with the family’s consent.
The letter was sent by D.J. Bourque, district entertainment officer for the Canadian Legion War Services, who was arranging entertainment for the troops’ concert parties.
On Remembrance Day, Legion officials presented the piece of postal history to one of Hubley’s daughters, who was mentioned in the letter and is now in her 90s and living at a nursing home in New Glasgow.