The Brown family discovered a Schweppes bottle on October 9, 2025, at Wharton Beach near Esperance in Western Australia containing letters from two Australian soldiers.
The messages were written by Privates Malcolm Neville, 27, and William Harley, 37, dated August 15, 1916, during their voyage to France.
The soldiers were aboard troop ship HMAT A70 Ballarat, traveling from Adelaide to reinforce the 48th Australian Infantry Battalion on Europe’s Western Front.
Neville was killed in action in France in 1917, while Harley survived the war but died in Adelaide in 1934 from cancer his family attributed to gas exposure.
The Brown family, who regularly clean beaches, successfully contacted both soldiers’ families after the remarkable discovery.
This extraordinary find after more than a century has reconnected families with their ancestors’ historical legacy, providing an emotional link to Australia’s WWI heritage.
