An elderly York resident had a special birthday marred when she failed to receive a telegram from the Queen.

Hannah Malton

Mrs Hannah Elizabeth Malton, known as Ann, celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday, January 2, but failed to receive the customary Royal greetings.

Buckingham Palace have confirmed the Telegram was sent to Ann, a resident at Grimston Court Residential Home, Hull Road, York.

Her family said they contacted the Royal Mail to be told the telegram had left Buckingham Palace and had reached York but they were unable to track it down any further on the day.

Ann's niece, Sylvia Massey, said: "She has worked up to that telegram for 100 years and she was very disappointed and everybody was absolutely amazed it did not arrive.

"All we received was a telegram from the department of social security and at first we thought that was the telegram from the Queen.

"I opened that up and read it out so far and then realised that it wasn't. It was a bit of an anti-climax.

"Everybody was very disappointed and the staff at Grimston Court said they had never had it happen before.

"We obviously still want it, even though it will be late, but it won't be the same.

"We were going to take a photograph with her at the party with the telegram and keep it as a family heirloom."

Staff at Grimston Court said the telegram had still not arrived today.

A spokesperson for the Royal Mail said, "We are undertaking an inquiry, but it is difficult as we do not know exactly when and where it was posted by Buckingham Palace. We have no record of the family contacting us, but we would urge them to ring our customer services department."

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