THE DIARY of an American WW2 soldier has incredibly been found at a charity shop in Portobello, hidden in a seemingly inconspicuous bible.
The bible was discovered by staff member Adam at the St Columba’s Hospice Care store on Portobello High Street, hidden amongst a box of donations.
Adam was left shocked to find that the holy book contained many diary entries from a soldier who spoke of going into battle during the Second World War.
A return address revealed that the soldier – a Mr. David B. Shanley – was from Baltimore in the US state of Maryland and had also served in Korea and Vietnam before settling in California as a police officer.
Whilst David has since passed away, Adam took it upon himself to return the diary to a family member and after some dedicated research, tracked down David’s nephew Michael.
Amazingly, Michael – who was reportedly left in tears at the news of his beloved uncle’s diary being found – has now been reunited with the long-lost property after the hospice shipped it overseas to the city of Bend in Oregon, over 4,600 miles away.
In order to find out more about David, Adam had searched the military database and found that he was made a 1st Lieutenant at 21 years-old, and “was a major fighter in the battle of Guadalcanal and received the Award for Heroism during Saipan”.
Further digging revealed that David passed away around 10 years ago in Oregon, and seemingly had no children.
After poring through entries, Adam found that David had mentioned his parents, as well as someone called Ruth and a sister called “Mollie-O”, who died in 2017.
Adam states that: “After discovering the date of her death, I found an online obituary which mentions her being affiliated with a local church, again in Bend, Oregon.
“I called up the church and spoke to the Father there, who informed me Mollie-O had a son called Michael, and provided his phone number for me.
“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.
“Only one question still remains, and that is how on earth it ended up in a small charity shop on Portobello High Street in the first place!”
The story has captured the hearts of Edinburgh locals, who are astounded at how the diary could have ended up here and impressed at the work that went into getting it back to its rightful owners.
One user commented: “What an uplifting story.
“Well done for the detective work, enabling David’s family to be reunited with this significant memento of him.
“Lovely to read good news.”
Another said: “That’s such a lovely story.
“Well done on reuniting David’s book and diaries with his family.
“You do wonder how they ended up in Portobello though, don’t you?”
Speaking today, Adam said that, though its journey remains a mystery, its final page could provide some clues: “The final entry of the diary said ‘I’m putting this in my locker box, I hope someone finds it’.
“I think that entry was from New Zealand in 1944, so I have no idea who brought it here.
“We’re not sure who left the diary with us but it was in a big box of other things found outside our front door.”
