Antiques Roadshow guest refuses to sell after priceless Titanic items valued

Antiques Roadshow expert Hilary Kay was left amazed by one guest's story behind Titanic letters sent by his father, Sidney Daniels, who survived the tragic sinking.

At aged only 18, Sidney worked on the ship as a plate washer as it set sail in April 1912 on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. During Sunday's episode of the BBC programme, which was a repeat, Sidney's son and daughter brought along a letter he had penned and shared their father's incredible story of survival.

Sidney's daughter explained to Hilary: "It was a Sunday, he was sound asleep, there was a banging and shouting and it was the night watchman. They were all a bit bleary-eyed because at first they thought it was a drill.

"It wasn't until he got up on deck, there were hardly any people around at first and then officers came and turned to him and said, 'Go to these cabins'."

She explained how Sidney had been tasked with waking sleeping guests on the ship following the incident but it wasn't an easy task.

"Of course it was hard to wake people, they were asleep. Some reacted in different ways. One or two said 'What does this young man know? He's 18, the boat is unsinkable, we're not going up on deck'," she added.

"Others were saying, 'We've got children, they're going to get a chill if they go up on deck'. So he helped the children with the lifejackets and ushered them up on deck."

Hilary chimed in: "You can imagine the scene of chaos and despair because people realised there weren't enough lifeboats."

Sidney's son replied: "That was his job, to try and get people into the lifeboats and the water was rising all of the time. When all the lifeboats had gone, the water was up around his knees and he thought, 'It's time to go'.

"So he dived off the side of the boat, swam away from it, came to a lifebelt and to my dad's mind, it was too close to the boat, he was afraid when the boat went down, the suction would take them down so he said to this chap, 'It's no good here, let's swim away'.

"Apparently this chap followed him and they just kept swimming. He said he saw a star in the sky which he thought was his mother and swam towards this star and eventually came to this life raft which was upside down and managed to cling onto that.

"When he was on there, he said, 'I'm tired, I want to go to sleep,' and the chap next to him said, 'Don't go to sleep lad, if you do, it will be your last'.

"So they sat there singing hymns trying to pass the time away."

The duo had brought along a letter which had remained tucked inside Sidney's uniform pocket when he leapt from the Titanic.

Hilary looked stunned by Sidney's story as she valued the cherished items:"It's an extraordinary item and anything related to the Titanic has this extraordinary effect on people.

"It is an extraordinary moment to behold something which is so linked into an extraordinary moment in history. We're talking about around £10,000, is the realistic value."

Despite the high value of the items, Sidney's son and daughter turned down Hilary's offer, and confirmed their intention. He said: "It's very nice but it's not going out the family", before he added: "It's going to a museum."

Antiques Roadshow airs on BBC One and iPlayer