A MENU from the first meal served on board Titanic fetched £45,000 at auction, a world record for memorabilia from the ill-fated Southampton Liner.

The menu from Titanic's first class restaurant is signed by the ship's Fifth Officer Harold Lowe. It was bought by an anonymous UK collector who made his bid by phone.

It broke the previous record, set last year when a Titanic photograph collection was sold for £37,000.

Officer Lowe sent the menu to his girlfriend in Wales while Titanic completed her sea trials from Belfast to Southampton. It had been in the Lowe family ever since.

More than 150 Titanic enthusiasts packed an auction room at the Hilton Hotel, Chilworth, yesterday. Phone bids were taken from Australia, the US and across Europe. Around £250,000 was raised from 30 lots.

One bargain hunter made a profit of more than £27,000 when a White Star Line staff badge bought in Scotland for just £102, was auctioned to another anonymous UK collector for £28,000.

The badge belonged to third class steward Thomas Mullen who was among 1,500 people who died when the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic four days after leaving Southampton on her maiden voyage in 1912.

One of Mr Mullen's descendants, believed to be a niece, sold his collection through a firm of Dumfries auctioneers and a local man, apparently unaware of its true value, left a successful speculative bid of £102.

The man, who is in his 40s and recently retired due to ill health, decided to put the archive up for sale with specialist Titanic auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Sons of Devizes, Wiltshire.

Among the lots was a bosun's whistle given to the widow of a passenger to enable her to communicate after she was struck dumb from grief at losing her husband. It sold for £700.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "Our job is to match the lot with the buyer and we have certainly done that today. It's a wonderful feeling.

"We were expecting the menu to break records. Officer Lowe was a highly regarded character and items associated with him have great sentimental and financial value.

"Interest in the Titanic story seems to grow. People are attracted to the hundreds of stories of bravery, happiness and despair."

A preview of Aldridge's auction of Titanic and Ocean Liner memorabilia to be held on September 18 in Devizes, Wiltshire, will be held today at the Hilton Hotel, Southampton, from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

- Originally published April 2004.