Ernest GF Brown was the purser on the SS Carpathia – a steamship which rescued over 700 people stranded in lifeboats

Ernest GF Brown was the purser on the SS Carpathia – a steamship which rescued over 700 people stranded in lifeboats after the Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean.

His gold medal, awarded by the Titanic Survivors Committee, is one of 14 in the world and will be auctioned on August 1 at Bourne End Auction Rooms, Buckinghamshire.

The 14 carat medal was made by New York jewellers Dieges & Clust in 1912 and is suspended by a red ribbon in its original box.

Carpathia gold medals are some of the rarest pieces of Titanic memorabilia and this is only the third auctioned in 30 years. A similar one previously sold for £39,000.

Auctioneer Hugo Lemon said: “The medal came from an estate we have been clearing. No one in the family told us about it. We began clearing and came across a large group of medals, many of them for rowing, and then we found this one.

“This is just so important at the moment. This year marks one hundred years since the sinking of the Carpathia.

“Anything to do with the Titanic is so sought-after. You never know with something like this how much it will sell for.”Auctions are a tricky thing, but I would hope it will reach the higher end and exceed £25,000 because it has it’s original box.”

Ernest GF Brown, purser on board the SS Carpathia, was born in 1885 in Liverpool, and was 27 when the Carpathia went to the aid of the Titanic.

Once the Carpathia had received the distress signal from the Titanic 60 miles north of it’s location, the ship quickly instigated preparations for the boarding of the survivors, issuing orders for the lowering of ladders and rigging, preparing the ship’s forward cranes and making slings to haul up children.

The Carpathia hit top speed of 17 knots, well in excess of her maximum speed, reaching Titanic’s last recorded position almost 2 hours after the ship had sunk.

Purser Brown was ordered to clear the alleyways of the ship from any obstructions to aid in the smooth running of the operation.

After the last of the survivors of the sinking of the Titanic had been rescued and returned to New York, passenger Margaret Brown established the Titanic Survivors Committee in order to look after those who had lost everything and to thank the captain and crew of the Carpathia.

RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, and more than 1,500 died.

Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. It was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster.

Titanic was under the command of Capt. Edward Smith, who also went down with the ship.

The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States.