A postcard believed to be the earliest ever to discuss the Titanic disaster is going under the hammer.
Amazingly, it was sent to an address in Bedford after being written in Southampton at 5pm and posted at 7pm on April 16, 1912 – less than 40 hours after the British passenger liner sank.
In it, the author tells their friend – who lived in Goldington Grange, Bedford – the Titanic had “gone to the bottom”.
And together with an unrelated letter to the same recipient, the lot will be sold on April 25 through auctioneers Charles Miller Ltd with an estimate of between £2,000 and £3,000.
The author wrote: “I did not hear of Titanic disaster until after posting letter yesterday... the only thing certain is that she has gone to the bottom. The White Star office at 12 could only give information that appeared in the ‘Mail’.”
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean at 2.20am on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg at 11.40pm the previous evening.
More than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time.
And just in case you can’t place Goldington Grange, it was demolished in the early 20th century and would have been at the junction of today’s Grange Road with Goldington Road.
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The postcard thought to be earliest to discuss the Titanic disaster Photo: Charles Miller Ltd
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The front page of The New York Times on April 15, 1912 reporting on the sinking of the Titanic (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Photo: John Moore