Unique memorabilia from some of the great shipwrecks and personal belongings of one of the world’s most renowned divers, Carl Spencer, will go under the hammer in Birmingham next week, and interest is expected from across the globe.

The husband and father of two, born and bred in Bloxwich, died in May 2009 aged just 39, leaving behind a widow and their two children.

The pioneering technical diver, who had worked with film director James Cameron, lost his life on an expedition to the Titanic’s sister ship Britannic. At 130 metres down in Greek waters, it is the diving equivalent of climbing Everest.

He was one of only two divers in the world thought to have seen both the wrecks of the Titanic and the steamer Carpathia, which went to the doomed ship’s aid.

Now unique parts of the former Great Wyrley High School pupil’s estate are going under the hammer in Birmingham.

The auction will include some of Mr Spencer’s memorabilia from his dives on the Carpathia, Donald Campbell’s Bluebird and the Titanic, which sank 100 years ago on April 15.

It will also include signed memorabilia from James Cameron, who wrote a passage for Mr Spencer’s funeral, and more than 200 original photographs of Mr Spencer’s visits to the Titanic and a Minton plate recovered from the Carpathia wreck site in the Atlantic near Ireland.

Other more personal items to be auctioned off include two limited edition Doxa diving watches – including one only given to the world’s most foremost divers who featured in the book Diving With Legends – and the Rolex submariner watch he wore on every dive and was wearing the day he died.

It was an emotional decision by Mr Spencer’s family to sell the watches, which will form part of a specialist auction of vintage and modern wrist watches at Birmingham’s Fellows Auctioneers on January 23.

The family now hopes that many of the lots will be snapped up by museums.

His wife Vicky said: “A watch should tell more than time – it should tell a story.”

Mrs Spencer added: “Every morning I wake up with thoughts of Carl and every night I go to sleep thinking of Carl, it never goes away. Every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day he’s always in my thoughts. He always will be. I miss him terribly.”

She added: “Our family’s wish is that Carl be remembered as the amazing man he was, is, and always will be.”

Mr Spencer had been commissioned by National Geographic to survey previously unseen parts of the Britannic wreck and was expedition leader for an international 17-strong man team when he died.

South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing that Mr Spencer, who lived in Kings Bromley, near Lichfield, would still be alive today had he not breathed in a “toxic” and incorrect mixture of oxygen and helium when surfacing from the wreck after getting into difficulties on the sea bed.

During his fatal dive, Mr Spencer, who ran Spencair heating and air conditioning business in Cannock and often described himself as “just a plumber from Cannock”, was retrieving and replacing an experiment that form Draycon Bioconcepts DBI of Canada hope will help develop new medicines. He worked on similar experiments on the Titanic.

The inquest heard that the canister’s gas concentrations had not been checked before it was fixed to lines lowered into the water to be used by divers returning to the surface in an emergency.

The yellow container, marked ‘air’ in grey duct tape, had 50 per cent oxygen inside which was toxic at 40 metres due to the pressure. Mrs Spencer added: “Even though these ships are now wrecks, they are still giving back to us.”

During his career, Mr Spencer took part in deep Atlantic submarine dives to the Titanic wreck, as part of a Discovery Channel expedition led by the James Cameron and he also recovered the body of world water-speed record holder Donald Campbell from Coniston Water in the Lake District.

The qualified helicopter pilot also filmed documentaries for ITV, Channel 4, History and Discovery Channels and National Geographic; co-led joint military expeditions with both the Navy and the Army; and took part in medical trials and decompression modelling projects in North Carolina and Croatia.

In 2007 he became only the second person in the world to have seen both the Titanic and the Carpathia alongside the last surviving Titanic survivor Millvina Dean. But while she saw them on the surface Mr Spencer saw them on the seabed.

In a curious parallel, Millvina also died in May 2009 – exactly one week to the day after Mr Spencer.

* The auction will be held on January 23, at Augusta House, 19, Augusta Street, Birmingham. For further information visit www.fellows.co.uk