On Wharton Beach in southern Western Australia, a handwritten pencil note dated August 15, 1916, was found in a bottle.
Malcolm Alexander Neville’s note requests that the finder deliver it to his mother in Wilkawatt, South Australia.In 1917, 28-year-old Private Malcolm was killed in battle in France, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
Last week, a family gathering trash on the beach found it. Written in pencil on paper rolled into a glass bottle, the letter has not yet been verified by historians.
Malcolm Alexander Neville, a soldier from South Australia, wrote it to his mother and signed it “somewhere at sea August 15th 1916” before sailing to Europe.
Mr. Neville, a resident of remote South Australia, is listed on the Australian War Memorial as being on board HMAS Ballarat, which sailed from Adelaide on August 12, a few days before to the letter’s writing.
