A personal letter found on the body of a man killed in the sinking of the Titanic sold at auction on Saturday for a record £126,000 (S$226,000).

The letter is one of the last known to have survived the sinking and still carries stains from its time in the Atlantic. Written by first class passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson on embossed Titanic stationery, the letter to his mother describes his impressions of the palatial ship.

"If all goes well, we will arrive in New York Wednesday A.M.," Mr Holverson wrote the day before the ship's fateful encounter.

The letter was sold by the Holverson family at an auction held by Henry Aldridge & Son in the southern English town of Devizes. Iron keys from the ship also sold for £76,000. The Titanic was the largest ocean liner in service when it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, in the Atlantic while travelling from Southampton to New York, killing more than 1,500 people.