THEIR love blossomed amid the horrors of the Titanic disaster - and sparked off a remarkable chain of coincidences.
Vernon Livermore and Hungarian immigrant Julia Cservenka both worked on the RMS Carpathia and helped pick up survivors from the doomed White Star liner, which sank in the north Atlantic with the loss of 1,523 lives on the night of April 14-15, 1912.
Vernon, a 32-year-old waiter, and Julia, a 26-year-old stewardess, both received bronze Carpathia Medals, given by grateful survivors.
Then Vernon took his sweetheart back to meet his parents before getting married and settling in Bishop Road, Anfield, Liverpool.
Now the Carpathia Medals, pictured right, together with a clutch of evocative documents, including photographs, letters, telegrams and Vernon's World War I campaigns medals, have fetched close to £9,000 at auction, almost twice their estimate.
But love amid the backdrop of the Titanic disaster reveals only part of their remarkable story.
Julia's sister, Ethel, was also serving aboard the Carpathia - and also married a seaman, Percy Penny.
The two couples subsequently lived in back-to-back houses in Anfield before Percy and Ethel moved to Ashbourne Road, Fullwood Park.
