Two messages in a bottle written by Australian soldiers in 1916 have been found on Wharton Beach, Western Australia, over a century later. The letters, penned before they sailed to World War I, were discovered by a local family during a beach cleanup. One soldier, Malcolm Neville, later died in action, while the other, William Harley, survived. The heartfelt notes have now been returned to their descendants, leaving families deeply moved by the century-old connection.
WWI Soldiers’ Century-Old Messages in a Bottle Found on Australian Coast
Messages written in 1916 by two Australian soldiers have been discovered more than a century later on the country’s south-western coast.
The cheerful notes were penned just days into their voyage to France to fight in World War One. One of the soldiers, Private Malcolm Neville, told his mother the food aboard was “real good” and that they were “as happy as Larry.” He was later killed in action at 28. The other, Private William Harley, then 37, survived the war and returned home.
The letters have since been passed to their descendants, who were left astonished by the discovery.
The bottle surfaced earlier this month on Wharton Beach, near Esperance in Western Australia, found by local resident Deb Brown and her family.
During one of their routine quad bike trips to clear beach litter, they noticed a thick glass bottle lying in the sand. “We do a lot of cleaning up on our beaches and would never go past a piece of rubbish. So this little bottle was lying there waiting to be picked up,” Ms Brown told the Associated Press.
Although the paper inside was wet, both letters remained legible. Ms Brown then began tracing the soldiers’ families to return the messages.
She located Pte Neville’s great-nephew, Herbie Neville, through an online search using the soldier’s name and hometown, which had been written on the note. Mr Neville told ABC News the experience was “unbelievable” for his family—especially for 101-year-old Marian Davies, Pte Neville’s niece, who still remembers her uncle leaving for war and never returning.
The second letter, written by Pte Harley, was addressed simply to “whoever finds this bottle,” as his mother had passed away years earlier.
Pte Harley’s granddaughter, Ann Turner, said she and the soldier’s four surviving grandchildren were “absolutely stunned” by the find.
“It really does feel like a miracle,” she said. “We feel as though our grandfather has reached out from the grave. I feel very emotional knowing the other young man had a mother to write to, while our grandfather wrote to the finder because his own mother was gone.”
According to Pte Harley’s note, the bottle was thrown overboard “somewhere in the Bight,” referring to the Great Australian Bight off the southern coast.
An oceanography expert told ABC that the bottle may have drifted only a few weeks before reaching Wharton Beach, where it likely remained buried for about 100 years.