The pair, both Americans, became close as they sailed aboard the fateful ship in 1912 among a group of wealthy passengers.

When the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14, top architect Edward, 60, rushed Helen, a beautiful author and leading feminist, to lifeboat No 6.
 
As they were about to be parted, Helen handed Edward a silver hip-flask and a miniature painting of her mother as a token of their friendship. 

But as with Leonardo DiCaprio in the blockbuster film, Edward died in the icy waters when the liner sank, along with 1,500 others.
 
Helen — just like the character played by Kate Winslet — was one of 700 survivors.

A respected historian later revealed that a travelling companion of the couple, Colonel Archibald Gracie, said: “Mrs Candee last saw him waving to her from the railing of the listing liner — a handsome, slim man.”

Edward, 58, had remained on board, helping women and children into the last remaining lifeboats.When his body was recovered from the sea, Helen’s painting and flask were found in his jacket.

Through the inscription on the receptacle ‘Faithful but Unfortunate’, the American Churchill family motto, Edward’s family tracked down Helen, who was in her fifties, to New York.
 
Edward’s sister Charlotte, living in Buffalo, sent the flask and the painting back with a thank-you note dated May 15, 1913.In it she wrote: “I’m glad you are to have them back again.”

That letter and the silver flask are being put up for auction by Helen’s family and are expected to fetch between £8,000 to £12,000.
 
Chief auctioneer Alan Aldridge, from Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes, Wilts, said: “It is an incredible story.

“The truth is often far more interesting than fiction. We’ll never know what happened between them. But the fact the flask and letter are both still around is amazing.”