Bottle Carrying World War I Letters Discovered In Australia
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In 1916, two soldiers put handwritten notes into a glass bottle and threw it into the sea as they sailed from Adelaide, South Australia, to Europe to fight in World War I. More than a century later, the bottle has been found on a Western Australian shore, with its contents intact.
The chain of events leading to the exciting discovery began on October 8, 2025, when Debra Brown and her family were on a bike ride at Wharton Beach, Western Australia. The family often collected trash on the beach, so when Debra noticed a thick glass bottle stuck in the sand, she instantly picked it up. A closer look revealed some yellowed papers inside. Curious, Debra took the wet bottle home, removed the cork and placed it on a windowsill to dry. She then used tweezers to remove what turned out to be two letters. They were damp, but the writing was still legible.
"You could see that they had a message inside," Debra said. "We thought, no way would you be able to read it."
Debra believes the bottle had been buried in the beach dunes for over a century. It was likely exposed when severe winter storms washed away the sand.
"If it had lived in the ocean for 109 years, it would have sunk to the bottom. The cork would have disintegrated," she said.
The letters were dated August 15, 1916. They were written in pencil by Malcolm Neville, 27, and William Kirk Harley, 37.
Neville’s letter was to his mother and described life at sea. "Having a real good time," he wrote. "Food is real good so far, with the exception of one meal, which we buried at sea." He signed it, "Your loving son Malcolm… Somewhere at sea," and asked the finder to mail it to his mother.
Harley’s note was much shorter. "If you find this bottle, I hope you're in as good spirits as we are at the moment," he wrote. He listed their location as "Somewhere in the [Australian] Bight," a large bay off Australia’s western edge. Harley instructed the finder to keep the letter.
Eager to learn what became of the two soldiers, Debra searched the Australian War Memorial’s website. She found that Neville was killed in battle in France in April 1917, just months after writing the letter. Harley returned home in 1918, married his childhood sweetheart, and later died of cancer in 1934.
Debra then turned to social media to locate the soldiers’ families and give them the letters. After some searching, she found Neville’s great-nephew, Herbie Neville, who was thrilled to receive his uncle's note.
"Since then, all of his cousins and sisters and everyone have been in touch with me, and they’re very excited about the whole find," Debra said.
She also managed to track down Harley’s granddaughter, Ann Turner, who was equally moved to receive the long-lost mail.
"We just can't believe it. It really does feel like a miracle, and we do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out for us from the grave," Ann said.
This is not the first time a historic message in a bottle has washed up on Western Australia's shores. In 2018, one containing a message from 1886 was found just north of Wharton Beach. Written in German, it had been thrown as part of a scientific experiment to track ocean currents. It is still considered the oldest message in a bottle ever discovered.
Resources: Smithsonianmag.com, theguardian.com, Allthatsinteresting.com
