World War I soldiers' message in a bottle found on Australian beach

UPI ^ | 10/28/25 | Ben Hooper

[DallasBiff]

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A message in a bottle found during a beach clean-up in Australia turned out to contain letters from two World War I soldiers who launched their bottle 109 years earlier.

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

Neville's letter showed he came from Wilkawatt, South Australia, and Brown was able to use Facebook to contact Herbie Neville, the soldier's great nephew.

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

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: australia; bottle; godsgravesglyphs; message; wwi

[DallasBiff]

Never know what will wash up on the beach, somtimes it is a bit of history.

[Ciexyz]

Feel good story of the day!

[Magnum44]

[Ciexyz]

Buried in the sand for over 100 years on that Australian beach! I read the accompanying article and it didn’t say what they wrote.

[Magnum44]

[tumblindice]

Two men are walking along the beach on day when they find a bottle buried in the sand. As they are brushing the sand off, a genie pops out and tells them he will give each of them one wish.
After thinking a moment the first man says, I wish I were the world’s smartest man.”
“Done, says the genie, and the man suddenly starts explaining Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to his friend.
The second man thinks for a moment, then says, “I want to be smarter than him!”
“Done,” says the genie, and turns him into a woman.

[Spacetrucker]

You just be related to Lazamataz.

[Repeat Offender]

Drink more Ovaltine

[mass55th]

Malcolm Alexander Neville died in France a little over 2 years before my great-uncle who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He was shot by German machine gun fire, and later died of his wounds two months before the Armistice. He's buried in a British Military Cemetery in France. I recently watched a four-part series by Canadian Norm Christie titled "The Great War Tour with Norm Christie." It's available on YouTube.

Until I watched his series, I never realized how many Canadian soldiers that were killed were virtually unknown. The main problem was that when they removed their bodies from where they had initially been buried, and reinterred in a military cemetery, their identifications were lost along the way. My uncle was extremely fortunate to have died in a field hospital, so his identify was never in doubt.

This series also uncovers the fact that there are still identified bodies buried on the Vimy Ridge battlefield, that although those identified remains were reported to have been transferred to specific Vimy Ridge cemeteries, on a visit to those cemeteries, Christie found no headstones for those men. When the series was made in 2017, he met with the Mayor of the town, where the bodies are believed to still remain, and has gotten permission to dig where he believes the remains are. I don't do Facebook, but there is an account there titled: "The Hunt For WW1’s Missing Dead | The Great War Tour With Norm Christie." Here's the link if anyone is interested:

The Hunt For WW1’s Missing Dead | The Great War Tour With Norm Christie

[Fledermaus]

It said “Listen to The Police”.

[SunkenCiv]

[ladyrustic]

All those beautiful boys, slaughtered for no good reason.

[Sirius Lee]

It said “Listen to The Police”.

Young men, soldiers, Nineteen Fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a Children's Crusade

[Revel]

Typical modern journalism. They don’t even give us the text.

[Red Badger]

Sometimes it is a kilo of coke.................This is Florida, after all............

[ccmay]

All those beautiful boys, slaughtered for no good reason. A great many of our current problems can be traced back to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, and the slaughter of the flower of European youth in 1914-1918.

[ExpatCanuck]

Three men are stranded on a deserted island and are walking along the beach when they find a bottle buried in the sand. As they are brushing the sand off, a genie pops out and tells them he will give each of them one wish.
After thinking a moment the first man, I wish I was back home with my family, and poof, he was gone. The second man says I wish I was back with my girlfriend and I was a millionaire, and poof, he was gone. The third man says, gee I miss those guys, I wish they were back here…

[flaglady47]

“The third man says, gee I miss those guys, I wish they were back here…”

THAT’S FUNNY.....