More than a century after Private Malcolm Alexander Neville sailed off to fight in World War I, a message he wrote to his mother washed ashore on a remote Australian beach. Written on August 15, 1916, and sealed inside a Schweppes bottle, the letter struck a hopeful tone. “Having a real good time,” he wrote. “Food is real good so far, with the exception of one meal, which we buried at sea.” The 28-year-old soldier signed off, “Your loving son Malcolm … Somewhere at sea,” and added a note asking that whoever found the message send it to his mother in tiny Wilkawatt, South Australia. Neville was killed in action in France in April 1917.
The
bottle surfaced 109 years later on Wharton Beach near Esperance, discovered by
a family while collecting rubbish. Amazingly preserved by sand and time, the
cork still held, and inside lay the faded pencil letter of a man long gone but
not forgotten. “We believe it’s been buried because it’s so well preserved,”
said Debra Brown, who helped recover the note. “If it had lived in the ocean
for 109 years, it would have sunk to the bottom.” Using surgical tweezers, the
family gently freed Neville’s two-page letter and later tracked down his
surviving relatives, who were deeply moved by the message that had finally made
its way home.
—Mitchell Hegman
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