AS THE centenary of the Titanic disaster approaches, great-grandmother Joan Bircher has discovered an original newspaper report about the sinking.

The 91-year-old, of Old Town, found a folded-up front page of The Daily Chronicle, a now-defunct daily newspaper, among belongings left to her by her late uncle, Arthur Arkell.

The-great-grandmother-of-six said her relative bought the paper on April 20,1912, after UK media first found out about the sinking on April 15, when 1,514 people died after the ship hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

Mrs Bircher said the copy had been valued at between £60 and £80, but she would not sell it because it was a memento of her uncle.

She said: “He got it on the day it was printed. He was a Gloucester man so he would have got it in Gloucester. I found this among his papers after he had died. He used to talk about it.

“It’s just a keepsake isn’t it, it’s just a matter of interest. I mean you wouldn’t throw a thing like that away would you. I have brought it out now because there’s so much about the Titanic.”

The Daily Chronicle, which cost one halfpenny, carried the story in various sections including the rush for lifeboats, the ship band playing to the end, and the US inquiry into the disaster.

Among those who died in the sinking was Great Western Railway shareholder Christopher Head. Mr Head, a former mayor of Chelsea, was a first-class passenger who vanished without trace at the age of 42.

The Adver also covered the Titanic story on April 19, 1912 under the headline ‘Giant liner lost’. It reported among those on board and, at that time, unaccounted for, were Benjamin Howard, of Cheltenham Street, Swindon, a former Swindon GWR works foreman, as well as his wife.

n Anyone else with a Titanic story to tell can call the Adver on 01793 501798.