King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

Message in a Bottle - 1914

"Well on the way to the front.  Just seen the last of England.  Mean to fight like Britons.  Hope to see Leicester square again shortly.  From the boys of the King's Own (R.L.R.), Dover, SS Saturnia.  22nd August 1914"

On 22nd August 1914 when soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment crossed the English Channel on the way to France, on board the SS Saturnia, one of them wrote a message to the Editor of the Daily Mirror Newspaper.  The pencil written message was carefully place in a Fulham Brewery beer bottle and thrown overboard.  On 6th March 1922 the Grimsby trawler 'Egret' skippered by Mr E Dunn picked up the bottle, and found the message, which was then forwarded, we believe, to the Editor of the Daily Mirror.  In turn the bottle was forwarded to the 1st Battalion of the Regiment who donated it to the Regimental Museum in Lancaster.

The shell encrusted bottle.
Accession Number: KO0151/01

The message addressed to the Editor of the Daily Mirror.
Accession Number: KO0151/01

The message:  Well on the way to the front.  Just seen the last of England.  Mean to fight like Britons.  Hope to see Leicester square again shortly.  From the boys of the King's Own (R.L.R.), Dover, SS Saturnia.  22nd August 1914
Accession Number: KO0151/01

The newspaper report, believed to be from the Daily Mirror in March 1922.  The bottle was picked up by the Grimsby Trawler, "Egret" on 6th March 1922.
Accession Number: KO0682/01