A POIGNANT letter from the widow of tragic Antarctic explorer Edward Wilson to the Hampshire man who discovered his body sold for £6,875 at auction, more than four times the sum it had been expected to fetch.

Before the auction, at Bonhams in London, the letter, from Oriana Wilson to Fareham-born Frederick Hooper, had been expected to sell for between £1,000 to £1,500, as reported by the Daily Echo.

Mr Hooper, who was the steward on the Terra Nova, the ship which took Scott of the Antarctic and his team on their ill-fated 1910-1912 expedition, was a member of the search party which found the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, who died 100 years ago last month.