More than 100 years later, the history of the First World War continues to be written. In Australia, a family discovered a Schweppes brand bottle on Wharton Beach, on the Australian coast. Inside were letters written by two Australian soldiers heading to fight in Europe. The manuscripts are dated August 15, 1916 and are signed by soldiers William Harley and Malcolm Neville.
“We clean our beaches regularly and never pass up a piece of trash. So this little bottle was there, waiting to be picked up,” Deb Brown told the Associated Press. This was found “in perfect condition”, which makes the writing perfectly legible more than a century later.
An “incredible” discovery
What happened to the two soldiers? One of them, Malcolm Neville, was killed in combat in 1917. William Harley, meanwhile, was wounded twice, but returned from the conflict alive, before dying in Australia in 1934 from cancer.
“May he who finds the treasure be as well off as we are now,” wrote William Harley.
For his part, Malcolm Neville wrote to his mother that he was “having a great time.” “The food has been really good so far, except for one meal we threw into the sea,” says the Australian soldier. He provides details of the voyage, stating that “the ship was pitching (…) somewhere in the sea.”
The families of the two Australian soldiers were informed of this discovery, described as “absolutely surprising” by the granddaughter of one of the soldiers. “We can’t believe it. It’s really like a miracle and we really feel that our grandfather has reached out to us from the grave,” Ann Turner told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. For his part, Malcolm Neville’s great-nephew celebrated this “incredible” discovery. “It seems like he was very happy to go to war. It’s very sad what happened,” he continues.
A member of the Commonwealth, Australia was automatically involved in the world conflict from 1914. More than 400,000 Australians served in the army, in various sectors such as northern France, Belgium, present-day Turkey or in the Egyptian and Palestinian campaigns.
Source: BFM TV
