Menu and locker key from ill fated liner up for auction

A menu from the doomed ship's first-class restaurant which survived the sinking in a passenger's coat pocket is expected to fetch £70,000.

And a small locker key also going under the hammer has a guide price of £35,000.

The historic artefacts are up for grabs courtesy of Titanic memorabilia specialists Henry Aldridge & Son, in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the items were ''extremely rare''.

The menu was owned by Elise Lurette, who was one of about 700 people who survived after the passenger liner hit an iceberg in April 1912. She was working as a maid for a family travelling on the ship when it sank.

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Items on the menu, dated April 12, included mutton chops, Melton Mowbray pie and tapioca pudding.

Also among the Lurette collection is a deck plan, which was used by French-born Ms Lurette to help find her way to a lifeboat on the ill-fated ship. It is expected to sell for £16,000.

Mr Aldridge said: ''To have a menu, especially one that survived the sinking in Ms Lurette's coat pocket, alongside a first-class deck plan, which was used on the Titanic and has remained in the family for over a century, is unheard of.

''Elise was rescued in lifeboat number six and was severely traumatised by her experiences, recalling the screams of those in the water and their attempts to climb into the lifeboat.''

The locker key going on sale was used by Southampton man Sidney Sedunary, 23, He was one of the 1,500 passengers and crew who died.

His body was later recovered and his possessions, including his pocket watch and keys to his cabin - number 45 on E deck - were sent to his pregnant wife Madge.

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