A jar containing letters written by two soldiers days before being sent to World War I has been found on a beach in Australia.
She was found by a family named Brown. Two letters written in pencil on August 15, 1916 were recovered from the bottle. The author of one book is Malcolm Neville, 27 years old, the second book is William Harley, 37 years old. Both served as sailors on a ship transporting Australian soldiers to Europe during World War I.
Apparently, the bottle with the letters on it was thrown into the sea before it had time to drift far from the Australian coast. According to the woman who found the bottle, it did not stay in the water for long and was thrown ashore, where it lay on the sand for more than a century.
The Associated Press reported that the paper inside the bottle was damp but the text was still readable. The woman contacted the author's relatives and this is what she discovered.
A year after writing the letter, one of the authors, Neville, died at the front. The second person – Harley – was wounded twice, returned home but died in 1934 of cancer. Relatives believed that the disease was the result of exposure to toxic gases on the battlefield.
Neville asked the person who found the bottle to pass on a message to his mother, Robertina Neville, who lives in South Australia. At this time, the letter was received by the deceased mother and granddaughter of the warrior Harley Ann Turner, who called the message a miracle.
Neville's nephew, Herbie, said the “incredible” message had brought the family together. Herbie added after reading the letter: “He seemed happy to go to war. It's sad that this happened. It's sad that he died.”
