WWI soldiers’ messages found in 109-year-old bottle on Australian beach

A glass bottle recently found at Wharton Beach near Esperance in Western Australia state on October 9, 2025, allegedly carried hand-written notes by soldiers fighting in World War I.

The messages written by two Australian soldiers nearly 100 years ago while fighting were found stuck in a Schweppes-brand bottle just above the waterline.

Deb Brown, who discovered the bottle, said that her family do a lot of cleaning at beaches and let no piece of rubbish ever pass by, adding, “This little bottle was lying there waiting to be picked up.”

The bottle contained letters written by two Australian soldiers on August 15, 1916. They were penned by Private Malcolm Neville, 27, and Corporal William Harley, 37, at the time.

The letters' content reveals that Neville wrote the letter to his mother, while Harley was happy for the finder to keep his note.

One of the letters states, “Dear Mother, Having a real good time, food is real good so far, with the exception of 1 meal which we buried at sea, accompanied by a mouth organ band which played the dead march. Paul. The dear old Ballarat is heaving & rolling, but we are as happy as Larry.

Your loving son,

Malcolm.”

The other note revealed it was written when the soldiers were “Some at Sea. Somewhere in the Bight.”

According to CNN, Neville died on the battlefield while performing duties and Harley died in 1934 due to cancer in Adelaide.