Titanic Doctor's Letter Home In Belfast

The paper is yellowed and the handwriting is quite hard to make out.

But the date is clear – 11th April 1912 – and the White Star Line logo is prominent on this century-old page.

One of the last letters sent from RMS Titanic has been bought at auction and is to go on display at the £97m Belfast visitor’s centre on the site where the ship was built.

Assistant ship's surgeon Dr John Simpson's note to his mother was brought ashore at Cobh, Co Cork, the vessel's last stop.

The 37-year-old Belfast doctor, who had previously worked on the liner’s sister ship the Olympic, was married and had one son when he took the commission on Titanic.

He died in the Titanic's sinking but on April 11, the day before the tragedy, his letter home was "humdrum".

Dr Simpson’s great-nephew, John Martin from Killinchy, said: "It is quite humdrum in its contents, it is just a letter of a man writing to his mother."

Dr Simpson signed off "With fondest love, John" after an update on his cabin, how he was settling in and how his cabin on Titanic was bigger than the one on Olympic.

The Titanic Foundation, the charitable group which oversaw the building of the Titanic Belfast visitor centre, bought the letter for more than £20,000 and brought it back to Belfast.

It will not be on display immediately but has been unveiled to the media.

(NE)