Descendants of two World War I soldiers are set to reunite with letters they wrote in a bottle, recently discovered on a remote beach in Western Australia. Debra Brown and her family found the bottle while participating in a beach clean-up at Wharton Beach. Inside, they discovered two letters from the soldiers.

After the discovery, Brown located the great-nephew of one of the soldiers, Private Malcolm Alexander Neville, who hailed from Wilkawatt, South Australia. "All I did was type in Neville and Wilkawatt, those two words, and Herbie's profile came up," Brown explained. She contacted Herbie Neville's workplace, and he responded a few days later.

Herbie Neville described the experience as "unbelievable" for his family. "It's been amazing how much has come to the surface in his short time in WWI," he said. Private Neville's military records indicate he enlisted in early 1916 but was discharged after a month due to poor eyesight. He re-enlisted a week later and joined the service corps. "I think that just shows you his character, how determined he was," Herbie Neville added.

Herbie's aunt, now 101 years old, often shared stories about "Uncle Malcolm," who never returned from the war. Private Neville was killed in action in France just months after he threw the bottle overboard in 1916, at the age of 28. The second letter was penned by William Kirk Harley, who survived the war. His granddaughter, Ann Turner, expressed her astonishment at finding the letter, calling it "a miracle."

"We are all absolutely stunned; there are five grandchildren who are still alive," Turner said. "We're all in constant contact since it happened and we just can't believe it. We do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out to us from the grave."

Turner noted that the letter serves as a poignant reminder of the soldiers' optimism as they were sent off to war. "I think he would have been absolutely delighted to finally be off to go to war, and so I think that's where the optimism comes from," she said. She also reflected on the emotional weight of the letters, particularly noting the different circumstances of the two soldiers. "I feel very emotional when I see that the other young man had a mother to write to, and that message in the bottle was to his mother, whereas our grandfather long ago had lost his mother, so he just writes it to the finder of the bottle."

Debra Brown shared her emotional response to reading the letters. "This poor darling had gone off, not knowing what he was about to face, and he seemed quite chipper in the letter," she said. Brown is in the process of sending the letters to the families of Private Harley and Private Neville.

The letter from Private Harley mentioned that the ship was "somewhere in the Bight" when he threw the bottle overboard. Charitha Pattiaratchi, a coastal oceanography professor at the University of Western Australia, explained that objects like bottles can travel significant distances in the ocean, but their final destination can be unpredictable. He estimated that the bottle may have been in the ocean for just weeks before reaching Wharton Beach. "In the summer months, that's when the currents go from east to west," he said. "It probably would have been a few weeks; it could have even been a month before it actually got to Wharton Beach. Once it got to the beach, it could have stayed there and got buried in the sand, so it could have been there for 100 years."

This discovery is not the only historical find at Wharton Beach this month, as an ancient wetland has also been exposed due to coastal erosion. Dr. Pattiaratchi noted that a combination of large waves and higher water levels has contributed to increased erosion along the coast.