A MENU of the first ever meal served aboard the Titanic has sold for £100,000 at auction.

The menu, which listed a lunch served to officers on the first day of the liner's sea trials, was sold to a British collector in Devizes today.

It is believed to be only one of two still in existence.

The menu included consommé mirrette, sweetbreads and spring lamb for a lunch which place on April 2, 1912 – 13 days before the linker sank into the Atlantic.

It belonged to Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the most senior crew member to survive, who gave it to his wife as he left Southampton on 10 April 1912.

Other items sold at auction today included a key to the doomed vessel's chart room sold to a collector from Texas for £78,000, while a drowned steward's badge sold for £57,000.

The badge belonged to a Thomas Mullen and was found with his body.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "We are delighted with the results of the auction and think the rarity of the objects is reflected in the prices which illustrates the ongoing fascination with the story of the Titanic."

Mr Aldridge said he believed only one other example of a 2 April menu had survived, which belonged to Titanic's Fifth Officer Harold Lowe.

"He wrote a notation on the bottom 'this is first meal ever served on board' however the bottom of the Lowe menu was removed," he said.

"So this [the Charles Lightoller menu] is believed to be the only complete example and is one of the most important examples of its type in existence today."

The Lowe menu sold at auction for £28,000 in 2004.

The Titanic left Southampton on its maiden voyage to New York on April 10.

The White Star liner hit an iceberg in the early hours of 15 April 1912 and sunk into the Atlantic.

An estimated 2,224 passengers and crew were aboard, and more than 1,500 died - around 550 from Southampton.