TWO rare wartime mementoes of a famous British submarine will go under the hammer next week after being discovered gathering dust in a Selby council depot.

HMS Sturgeon, a long-range patrol submarine which was responsible for the Second World War’s first successful torpedo attack, was adopted by Selby Rural District Council and Selby Urban District Council in 1942.

To mark the occasion, each council received a large copy of the ship’s badge mounted on a shield.

The two 68-year-old mementoes were rediscovered several weeks ago when industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management were clearing out a Selby District Council property maintenance depot which has been sold.

The shields will be auctioned without a reserve price in Scunthorpe on Tuesday Paul Cooper, of CJM, said: “It is very unusual to have things like this come on to the market so we would expect quite a lot of interest from collectors.”

HMS Sturgeon was involved in the hunt for the infamous German battleship Bismarck and was among only four submarines in her class to survive the war.

Tuesday’s 900-lot auction is one of Yorkshire’s largest industrial sales of the year and catalogues can be downloaded at cjmasset.com