By ANDY DOLAN

Last updated at 20:48 15 February 2007

It was the only way Walter Butler could let his fiancee know he was still alive.

But the hastily signed field service card he sent from the Flanders trenches never made it to Amy Hicks.

Ninety years later, it was the couple's daughter Joyce Hulbert, an 86-year-old grandmother, who finally took delivery.

Royal Mail officials admitted they were at a loss to explain why the post was nine decades late.

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The 21-year-old soldier had addressed the card to his sweetheart's family home in Colerne, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

The couple went on to marry after his return from the war. They moved to London and their daughter Joyce arrived. Sadly, they later divorced.

When the Second World War broke out, Mrs Butler brought her daughter back to her mother's house in Colerne to escape the Blitz.

Joyce, now Mrs Hulbert, still lives there with her husband Arthur, 82, a retired civil servant.

The card was found at their local Royal Mail sorting office.

'This card was Dad's only way of getting word home to my mother that he was still alive, but it is obviously one that she never got,' Mrs Hulbert said.

'I am very surprised that it turned up, I would love to know where it has been all this time so I can thank whoever kept it in such good condition.

'The soldiers were issued field service cards which carried just a few lines of pre-printed information.

'They had to delete the bits that were not appropriate but were not allowed to write anything else on the cards except their names and the date.'

Her father's card contained the printed message: 'I am quite well. Letter follows at first opportunity. I have received no letter from you for a long time.' Mr Butler, who served in the Dorset Regiment, added his name and the date - November 5, 1917.

Mrs Hulbert said her father, who was 18 when he was sent to the trenches, rarely spoke about the war on his return.

She had no idea exactly where he had fought.

'My father always told me that he survived the war because he could run fast and hit hard,' she said. The card bears only a general 'Field Post Office' stamp.

However, this mark is mysteriously dated July 28, 1915 - more than two years earlier than the 1917 date Mr Butler indicated.

It was found at Chippenham Sorting Office last week, after arriving in a batch of mail from Swindon.

Postman Martin Kay called in friends Adrian and Margaret Wood from the village history society in the hope of tracking down any relatives.

Mrs Wood, a friend of Mrs Hulbert, remembered her maiden name was Butler and put the postman in touch with her.

Mr Kay said staff at the sorting office were baffled as to the card's whereabouts all these years.

'We can only imagine that it may have been lost in an Army barracks somewhere or it has been hidden behind a fitting in a building,' he said. 'We thought it might have been a joke at first because we couldn't believe it.'

Mrs Hulbert's mother Amy remained in Colerne until she died in 1974 aged 81. She never remarried.

Her father, who went on to work as a builder and decorator after his wartime service, did marry again. He died in 1978 aged 82.