AS an orphan growing up in the New Forest, it was one of her most treasured possessions.

The teddy bear was given to little Feodora after her parents were killed when an earthquake and tsunami struck southern Italy almost a century ago.

Now her beloved bear, cherished until her death in the 1990s, is to find a new owner after being offered for sale by her daughter at auction.

The commission from the sale will go towards victims of the Boxing Day tsunami disaster in south-east Asia.

Feodora was just seven months old when her family were killed along with an estimated 200,000 others as the giant wave devastated the city of Reggio di Calabria and Messina, Sicily, on December 28, 1908.

She was rescued by Russian sailors, who named her after the Tsarina, and finally ended up being adopted by a Scottish doctor and his wife.

They brought the traumatised orphan back to England and gave her a new life at their home at Sway.

Feodora herself rarely spoke about her early life, and her daughter, still living in Sway, has retained the family privacy, refusing to be identified.

She said: "My mother preferred teddies to dolls. This surviving Scottish teddy, originally dressed as a soldier in khaki, may well have been chosen in deference to her adoptive father. My mother vehemently refused to be photographed, but the grown-ups cleverly told her that the teddy was the subject of the photograph and not her. This made her happy to comply.

"During the Second World War the family's belongings were stored away. When the teddy finally emerged, his uniform was moth-eaten so my mother made a black velvet jacket for him some 60 years ago."

She added: "Feodora collected many teddy bears during her childhood, but this was her favourite and the only one she kept all her life."

The battered bear, dating from 1910 and of no particular distinction, would normally fetch no more than £25.

But because of its origins the unnamed teddy may fetch £1,000 or more when its goes under the hammer at auctioneers Vectis in Stockton-on-Tees on March 16.

For more information go to the Vectis website at: www.vectis.co.uk