A bottle with a message from WWI soldiers was found on the beach (3 photos)

A message in a bottle found during a beach cleanup in Australia turned out to be letters from two World War I soldiers who released it 109 years ago.





Debra Brown said she and her family were cleaning along the shoreline at Wharton Beach when her daughter found a bottle containing letters from Malcolm Alexander Neville and William Kirk Harley, soldiers who served in World War I in 1916.

Neville's letter indicated he was from Wilkawatta, South Australia, and Brown was able to contact Herbie Neville, the soldier's great-nephew, through Facebook.

The elder Neville was 28 years old when he died in action in France just a few months after writing his message in a bottle. Herbie Neville said he knew about his great-uncle Malcolm from stories he heard from his aunt, now 101.

"It was amazing how much came to light in the short time he spent in World War I," Neville said in an interview.



Brown was also able to contact members of Harley's family who later returned home from the war.

"We're all absolutely stunned. We have five grandchildren who are still alive," said granddaughter Ann Turner. "We've all been in constant contact since this happened, and we just can't believe it. We feel like our grandfather has reached out to us from beyond the grave."

University of Western Australia coastal oceanography professor Charita Pattiarachi believes the message bottle may have been in the water for only a few weeks after it was launched from the Great Australian Bight.

"It was probably several weeks, maybe even a month, before she got to Wharton Beach," she said. "Once she got to the beach, she could have stayed there and been buried in the sand, so she could have been there for 100 years."