A widower said he was shocked to receive a letter for his late wife - eight years after it was sent.
Hugh Stringer, 81, was also sent an apology letter from Royal Mail apologising for the unexplained delay.
The post was addressed to his wife Flo, who died two years ago aged 97.
Mr Stringer, from Chelmsford, told Essex Live: “My first thought was ‘what are they doing writing to Flo, when she’s been gone for two years'.
“It wasn’t until I looked at the back and found the letter from the Royal Horticultural Society that I found the date, 2011.
“Then I found the letter from the post office saying sorry about it.”
Hugh and Flo moved into their Chelmsford flat in 2003, and would have been married for 50 years last year.
Along with the post addressed to his wife was a letter sent from Chelmsford Delivery Office apologising for the delayed delivery stating that the mail had “recently come to light following an internal investigation”.
However no details as to what had happened to the post were provided, leaving Hugh none the wiser as to why this post did not arrive for so long.
“I would like to know more for curiosity,” he said.
“Maybe a sack placed in a corner somewhere, or maybe a postman taken the post home, it’s hard to know what happened, they just said an internal investigation.”
This late delivery was not an isolated incident. One of Hugh’s neighbours also received post dating from 2011 addressed to the previous owner of the flat.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail recently discovered a number of historical mail items that were not delivered at the time of posting.
“We are in the process of returning this mail to customers and apologise for any inconvenience to impact customers.
“Every item of mail is important to us. We have launched an investigation into what has happened.”
