World War I Message in a 100-Plus-Year-Old Bottle

The soldiers who fought in World War I experienced brutal conditions, such as poison gas, trench warfare, and machine-gun fire. Desperate to reach out to their loved ones, they had to depend on writing letters. In the heartfelt communications, they kept their families informed about their whereabouts and tried to keep emotional bonds intact. During the war, the British Army Postal Service delivered around 2 billion letters. Two soldiers, however, used an alternative form of delivery when they put their handwritten missives in a glass bottle and tossed it into the sea. The bottle was found more than a century later with the writings intact.

The Discovery

The bottle containing the soldiers’ letters from 1916 was discovered by Debra Brown and her family. As the Browns picked up trash along their bike riding route, on Oct. 8, 2025, they got more than they bargained for. Debra first noticed the thick glass bottle sticking out of the sand on Wharton Beach in Western Australia. She first picked it up and later discovered that the old bottle was filled with damp papers. After letting it dry on a windowsill for a while, she removed the contents with tweezers. Unbelievably, the handwritten text on them was legible.

“You could see that they had a message inside. We thought, no way would you be able to read it,” Debra observed. But she was shocked that she could, believing that the only way the contents could have stayed that way for 109 years was if the bottle had been buried in the sand. The water would have caused too much damage to the cork and the letters.

The World War I Letter Writers

The letters were written by two World War I soldiers making their way from Australia to Europe. Private Malcolm Neville, 27, and Private William Kirk Harley, 37, using a pencil, discussed their current situations, describing the food aboard the ship and their location.

Private Neville wrote to his mother that the food was decent, “with the exception of one meal, which we buried at sea.” He requested that whoever found the letter send it to his mother.

In a much shorter letter, Private Harley wrote to no one specific. He simply talked about his location and asked that the finder keep the letter. “If you find this bottle, I hope you’re in as good spirits as we are at the moment,” he wrote. He said they were “Somewhere in the Bight,” a large bay off Australia’s western border.

Finding the Families

Wanting to fulfill the soldiers’ wishes, Debra Brown and her family began trying to locate the families of the soldiers. She also wanted to learn the fate of the men who wrote the letters. She learned that Neville passed away during battle just a few months after writing the letter, and Harley returned home after the war to his childhood sweetheart in 1918. He died of cancer in 1934.

Using social media, Debra was able to locate the descendants of the soldiers. She found Herbie Neville, the great-nephew of Malcolm, who was ecstatic to receive the letter and hear of his great-uncle’s military history.

She also found Ann Turner, Harley’s granddaughter, who was equally thrilled to receive the old letter. Ann discussed her shock and the pleasantness of the surprise. “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.”

The practice of putting messages in a bottle and throwing them out to sea has become increasingly popular, especially among those who are romantic in nature. The oldest ever discovered bottled message was found in 1935 and was released from a German vessel in 1886. Any of the located “messages in a bottle” are valuable as scientific research to better understand sea currents.

1. A 109-year-old glass bottle containing old letters from World War I was discovered in Australia in 2025.
2. The letters were written by two soldiers who were aboard a ship headed to Europe to fight.
3. The soldiers’ families were located, and they were thrilled to receive the old letters.