The Royal Mail prides itself on delivering your post on time, wherever and whenever it is posted. Sometimes it is late, but surely it is almost unheard of to be more than 100 years late.

In a remarkable case this week, a postcard arrived at the Tavistock area delivery office on Monday postmarked August 1910 with a green Edward VII halfpenny stamp.

The Francis Frith’s Series postcard is numbered, which confirms the postmark year and is addressed to a Sergeant Harry Gollop then taking part in an Army (possibly the fourth Volunteer Battalion Devon Regiment) training camp at Brigade Camp on Whitchurch Down.

The sender tells Harry ‘Just a note to let you know we are down again. Hoping to see you Friday or Saturday. I remain yours Walter’.

The reason for the wrong delivery could be because the postcard was first delivered to Eire (Southern Ireland and the fact that the camp was temporary.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Events like this are very rare, the postcard arrived at our delivery office in Tavistock yesterday and we are certainly curious as to how it came to appear in our system after such a long period of time. Unfortunately, the address it was posted to no longer exists.”

The regiment was formed in 1908 with men from the former first and third volunteer battlions which were amalgamated to meet the needs of the Territorial Force Act of 1907. The Territorial Year Book for 1910 recorded the battalion strength was 28 officers and 932 men.