Unseen Titanic Archive to Sell Nov. 22

A never-before-seen archive of belongings from Frederick Sutton, a 61-year-old first-class Titanic passenger who drowned in April 1912, is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at a Henry Aldridge & Son auction in Devizes on Nov. 22. The collection, kept in Sutton’s family since its recovery by the MacKay-Bennett and transport to Halifax, includes personal effects such as a canvas effects bag with a gold watch, tie clip, pocket book, coins and other items. It uniquely contains the only known first-class passenger list to have survived submersion and an “Important Note” from the White Star Line informing relatives they would have to pay for first-class train tickets to repatriate bodies, a detail experts have called “callous.” Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described the trove as one of the most complete of its kind, and researchers note Sutton was unwell before the voyage and was buried at sea after the ship sank. The materials have never been publicly exhibited, and a second portion of the archive is scheduled to be offered in April 2026.