A volunteer at an Edinburgh charity shop discovered an 85-year-old diary in a box of donations and miraculously managed to track down the descendants of its owner in the United States.
Adam Wilson works at the St Columba’s Hospice charity shop in Portobello and discovered the journal when a large box of old books was donated.
One book in particular stood out to the volunteers – a leather-bound Bible with the name “David B. Shanley” printed on the front.
Inside, Adam found a treasure trove of diary entries written by David in 1941, nearly 100 years ago.
David was a soldier in the First World War and even documented going into battle.
Adam was motivated to go the extra mile after the amazing discovery.
The diary has entries describing David B. Shanley’s time in the war
(Image: Supplied)
He said: “Seeing this, I couldn’t see this either getting put in the bin or going to a collector. So the search for any possible family members began.”
However, the search came with challenges.
The Bible had just a small name tag with the soldier’s name an a return address – but the address was in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States.
Adam did some investigating on a military database and was able to find David B. Shanley’s service number.
It turned out that David had not just fought in the First World War. He also served in Korea and Vietnam, eventually settling as a police officer in California.
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He was made a 1st Lt. at 21 years old and was a major fighter in the battle of Guadalcanal and received the Award for Heroism during Saipan.
However, David passed away in Bend, Oregon about 10 years ago.
Adam discovered the diary in a box of donations at St Columba’s Hospice charity shop in Portobello
(Image: Supplied)
Adam returned to the diary entries and found mention of someone named Mollie O. He discovered through his online searching that Mollie was David’s sister, who passed away in 2017.
An obituary in Bend, Oregon pointed him in the direction of a local church. Adam phoned the church, where a priest informed him that Mollie O had a son named Michael and even gave him a phone number.
Adam had finally tracked down a relative of David Shanley.
He said: “After phoning and explaining who I was and what I had, Michael became emotional and burst into tears – he was very close with his uncle ‘Dave’ and looked after him as he became older.
I popped the diary in the post, and two weeks later it arrived back where it rightfully should be, with David Shanley’s family.”
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