More than a century after an Australian soldier wrote a letter to his mother as he sailed to war and his death, it has been discovered in a bottle washed up on a remote beach.

Private Malcolm Alexander Neville’s light-hearted note, penned on 15 August 1916, was found on Wharton beach, near Esperance, about 750km south-east of Perth.

“Having a real good time,” the letter pulled from inside a glass Schweppes bottle said.

“Food is real good so far, with the exception of one meal, which we buried at sea.”

Neville, who was killed in action in France in April 1917, aged 28, had departed Adelaide aboard a troopship three days earlier. ‘He was so excited’: painter discovers 122-year-old message in a bottle inside Tasmanian lighthouse walls Read more

“The dear old (HMAT) Ballarat is heavin

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