STAFF at a community centre in St Austell have been left scratching their heads after an envelope appearing to be addressed to a hero from the First World War dropped through their door.
The envelope was addressed to The Occupier, Captain Thomas Agar Robartes, Memorial Park Road, St Austell, and contained details from Cornwall Council and its contractor Cormac about planned road resurfacing.
Captain Agar-Robartes was the eldest son of the 6th Viscount Clifden, of Lanhydrock House, near Bodmin, and he served as an MP, first for Bodmin and later for St Austell.
As a captain in the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, Captain Agar-Robartes was injured in the Battle of Loos. Days later, he was fatally hurt rescuing a wounded comrade.
Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons subscribed towards a bench and trough in St Austell in his memory, and in November 1922, the memorials were unveiled on the corner of Park Road and Truro Road.
The address on the envelope delivered to the Sembal House Community Centre on West Hill was a garbled take on the location of the memorial.
A spokesperson the centre said: “The memorial to Captain Agar-Robartes has no letterbox so we got the envelope instead for some reason.
“Sadly, as the poor man is buried in France where he was killed in action in 1915, we were unable to forward it. There is probably no letterbox in the cemetery either and the envelope would only have confused the French postal service anyway. And it was too absurd to return the envelope to the sender.”
A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: “The letter was addressed to the memorial, not Captain Agar-Robartes.”
A spokesperson for Cormac said: “We use an internal mapping system to generate property details when communicating information about our work on behalf of the council to residents.
“The system captures all council-owned or managed assets. Regrettably, on this occasion, the data generated details of the memorial.
“Please be assured we are committed to preventing such errors in the future.”
The community centre has also received an envelope addressed to the China Cafe. This came from a business in Plymouth and contained an invitation to an event. However, as locals know, the China Cafe only exists as a mural in St Austell.
The community centre spokesperson said: “As there is no visible letterbox and none of the local celebrities portrayed in the mural were prepared to accept delivery, it was put through our door!”
In addition, the centre has received items of post that were clearly addressed to other actual premises in the town. These were reposted by a member of staff who wrote a message advising postal workers to read the addresses properly.