James HollandA letter simply addressed to “Mr James Holland, well known historian, Wiltshire” reached its destination thanks to the power of the postal service.
Inside the envelope were World War Two anecdotes written by a veteran’s 102-year-old widow.
It was helped on its way by Royal Mail staff, who added the words “try Salisbury SP5” as a further clue for the sorting office.
When it dropped through the door of its intended recipient – writer and broadcaster James Holland – he shared a picture of his unusual delivery on X with the caption: “aren’t posties brilliant?”.
He later told BBC Radio Wiltshire: “It thought it was so funny and just so charming that in this incredibly rules-based, highly regulated country that we now live in, an old-fashioned letter sent the old-fashioned way without a postcode still gets to you.”
The letter was delivered to Mr Holland in time for a talk he was giving in his home city about his new book on the war’s Italian campaign, Cassino ’44.
“The really lovely thing is the letter was from a 102-year-old called Judy Bray about her husband Charlie, to whom she was married for 71 years before he sadly died.
“He had served in Italy so she was sharing some anecdotes about him before the talk in Salisbury that she was coming along to,” he said.
“The envelope had that beautiful, old-fashioned, scratchy handwriting which I used to get a lot of when I was spending time writing to war veterans but sadly much less so these days.
“How fantastic that presumably it got to the Salisbury sorting office and then got to Andy, who is our brilliant local postman and much loved by the village community.”
‘Cut above the rest’
Paul Gibbons, a postman from Swindon who won a BBC Make a Difference Award after helping a poorly neighbour in need, said Mr Holland’s delivery was an example of what sets his colleagues apart.
“Up and down the country there are loads of us who do it. The envelope will say ‘the little house on the corner opposite the corner shop whose son used to work in the butchers’ and that will be it,” he said.
“I believe we as delivery persons are that little cut above the rest. We get that feel, that knowledge and that understanding of what goes on in the community and who lives there. It makes a difference.”