Brown paper packages tied up with string are, according to The Sound of Music, a few of our favourite things.

But one such package has proved to be a mystery after it was dropped through a letterbox apparently more than 50 years after being carefully wrapped and posted.

The parcel, complete with a 1950s stamp showing a young Queen’s head, and a wax seal, was hand delivered to The White Rabbit pub in Maidstone on Tuesday

The pub was formerly the officer’s mess of the Royal West Kent Regiment and the parcel was addressed to a serviceman.

It even uses the name by which the regiment was fondly known in the 1950s – the Dirty Half Hundred.

Inside was a book, The White Rabbit, The Story of Wing Commander FFE Yeo-Thomas GC, MC, who was awarded the George Cross for acts of bravery during the Second World War.

The delivery out of the blue caused quite a stir.

Cleaner Jo Freeman said: “I am really excited about it. I think it is really significant and a lovely thing for the people of Maidstone to hear about.

“I just feel like it was put through the door on that day for a reason – was it a significant date to someone? It was the Queen’s birthday.

“Why was it put through the door now? It’s a long time since the regiment would have been here.

“I would love to know and I’m sure the people of Maidstone would want to know too.”

She said that guests staying at the pub had also been intrigued to know whether any information had been uncovered about it.

Royal Mail confirmed that the package was not delivered by them.

The parcel was addressed to a serviceman, with the service number 58431, and, Major Dennis Bradley, secretary for the Queen’s Own Buffs, said efforts were being made to try and identify him.

He said: “It is very surprising to get such a parcel.

“We are working on trying to identify who this was addressed to, and trying to resolve the mystery.”

The building now occupied by the White Rabbit, ceased to be the officer’s mess of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in 1961 when it amalgamated with the Royal East Kent Regiment to become the Queen’s Own Buffs.