Titanic passenger’s archive set to sell for more than £100,000

An archive of material belonging to a passenger who drowned in the Titanic sinking is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at auction.

Frederick Sutton, 61, was a first class passenger on the ill-fated liner, which sank in April 1912, costing 1,500 lives.

Among the items included in the sale is the only first class passenger list to have survived being submerged in the Atlantic, and a “callous” note from the White Star line informing relatives of victims that they would have to pay the cost of a first class train ticket for the return of their loved ones’ bodies.

The archive is going under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wiltshire, on November 22.

Mr Sutton was born in Suffolk and settled with his family in New Jersey and became wealthy from a property business.

He had travelled to England in March 1912 for health reasons and was returning to the US on the Titanic.

He died in the sinking but at first his fate was not immediately known.

Mr Sutton’s body was buried at sea, and his effects were placed in a white camp bag bearing the number 46 and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the MacKay Bennett.

The collection has remained in the family since 1912 and has never been publicly seen before. The second part will be offered for sale next year.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “The Sutton archive is without doubt one of the most complete collections of its type we have ever handled.

“It is offered via direct descent and has never been in the public domain before.

“To discover a first class passenger list that was not only onboard the Titanic but went into the water and actually survived is truly remarkable.

“The second element of the collection that takes it to another level is the inclusion of the ‘Important Note’ from the White Star Line.

“It was issued to grieving families who were waiting for the return of their loved ones by the recovery ship Mackay Bennett in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“It states, ‘When bodies are ready for shipment friends may take them on the same train in the baggage car on payment of the regular First-Class therefore and the local offices of the Intercolonial will assist insist all enquiries in this. Bodies may also be sent by express on payment of two first-class fares. The Offices of the Canadian Express Co, 165 Granville Street are prepared to render every assistance’.

“This is callous in the extreme but goes to illustrate how different the world was in 1912.”