A PICTURE postcard has been delivered 83 years late to an address in Bournemouth.

Featuring a drawing of composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s iconic Bonn house on the front, a short message on the back to Ruby Bunker, of Horsa Road, says that “Sunday morning will be okay” and is signed off by “M”.

But it seems Mrs Bunker never received the note, which a fading postmark suggests was sent on August 6 in 1933, as it only turned up on her home’s doormat this week.

Current owner Sally Shorey has lived at the Southbourne house for 25 years and discovered the postcard perched at the top of a pile of letters after returning from a holiday in Spain.

The 52-year-old administration manager said she was initially convinced that the card must be a fake or some kind of a hoax.

A closer inspection, however, revealed a George V three halfpence stamp and a picture credit to Franz Jander of Berlin.

“I have been trying to find out anything I can about it,” the mother-of-two said. “When I first saw it I didn’t know what it was, I thought it must be junk mail and nearly threw it out.

“You hear about mail being delivered late, but this takes it to another level.”

Mrs Shorey has never previously received mail for Mrs Bunker and following research has as yet found no evidence of her ever living at the property.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “It is likely that the postcard has been put back into the postal system by someone, rather than it being lost in the post.

“Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the envelope, or in this case on the postcard.”

This is not the first occasion that the Royal Mail has supposedly delivered post late by many years, and even at 83 years this may not be the most delayed item ever.

In 2008 a letter containing an RSVP to a party turned up after 89 years at a guest house in Weymouth.

On that occasion a note from the Royal Mail apologising for any delay accompanied the delivery.

And in the same year a postcard of a war memorial was delivered to an address in London some 79 years after being sent in 1929, featuring a short message letting the recipient know of their safe arrival in Essex.

What was happening in 1933?

- Adolf Hitler becomes Germany’s Chancellor in January before assuming his role as Führer in March

- Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay

- The film version of King Kong is released

- Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States, succeeding Herbert Hoover

- Wally Hammond scores a record 336 not out for England during a cricket test against New Zealand

- Alcohol becomes available for sale in America again as Prohibition comes to an end

- The Loch Ness Monster comes to the world’s attention.