A precious memento of an unlikely friendship forged during the most infamous maritime disaster of all time has turned up in Perthshire.
Had the Titanic not come to grief, the paths of a ship’s crewman from Wales and a titled passenger might never have crossed.
However, aboard Titanic’s lifeboat number eight Able Seaman Thomas Jones and Noel, Countess of Rothes shared an experience that made them friends for life.
Jones was 32 when he boarded the Titanic as a member of the deck crew at Southampton and the countess a year older.
Five days after the vessel left England disaster struck when the ship hit an iceberg. Jones was placed in charge of a lifeboat which contained 35 women, including the countess.
He, in turn, put the countess in charge of steering the boat because her husband had a yacht and she knew how to take a tiller and row.
Jones, along with the countess and two others, wanted to go back to the scene of the sinking to rescue those who had ended up in the water but were overruled by others on the boat.
The passengers aboard the lifeboat then faced eight hours on the waters of the freezing Atlantic before they were picked up by rescue ship the Carpathia.
The rescued passengers and crew were taken to New York, where Tommy Jones and the countess went their separate ways, never to meet again.
As a parting gift the countess presented the crewman with a silver pocket watch as a thank-you for saving her life and he gave her a plaque displaying the number eight, taken from the lifeboat they had met in.
However, they maintained contact through correspondence for the rest of their lives.
The watch was brought along to a valuation day held by the auctioneers Bonhams at Glendoick Garden Centre on Thursday by direct descendants of the countess, including grandson Alastair Leslie.
“The watch came up for auction some years ago and was bought by Noel’s grandson Ian, the 21st Earl of Rothes,” explained Miranda Grant, managing director of Bonhams.
“It is currently owned by the Clan Leslie Charitable Trust, as is the plaque.
“The countess, who lived at Leslie House in Fife, was hailed as a heroine, not just by Jones but by much of the press of the day.”
The watch was bought for around £21,000 20 years ago but this week’s valuation was not revealed.