MEDALS and mementoes of an Antarctic explorer who worked in Teesside, are expected to fetch more than £30,000 when they are auctioned in London on Tuesday.

The collection, which includes medals, manuscripts and photographs, belonged to Lewis Raphael Rickinson, who was Sir Ernest Shackleton's chief engineer aboard Endurance for the Antarctic expedition of 1914 to 1917.

He was born in London on April 21, 1883, and died at Newbury, Berkshire, on April 16, 1945, but lived in Stockton when he served his apprenticeship with A Harker and Company.

Among the collection, being auctioned at Christie's, is a photo album which is tipped to fetch £20,000, and booklets, passports and certificates worth about £3,000.

A spokeswoman for Christie's said: "The photo album is a family album but it includes two important photos of the Endurance - one of it being crushed by ice and another of the expedition group of about 20 people.

"There are also a few photos of Shackleton himself, aside from the expedition."

The medals, which include the Victory medal and World War One medal, are expected to fetch up to £6,000, while two menus and a place setting from the Endurance should get £3,000.

Shackleton's copy of The Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, could go for an estimated £3,000, and 12 lantern slides, used to lecture on the expedition, are likely to fetch about £1,500. A newspaper cutting with the lantern slides talks about a lecture given at North Aldrington about the South Pole trip.

At the same sale, a bar of Cadbury's chocolate is due to become the most expensive item of confectionery in history.

Scott of the Antarctic took it with him on his unsuccessful bid to find the South Pole in 1905, and it is expected to fetch up to £600.

Polar mementoes are fetching huge sums at auction. At last year's polar sale at Christie's, a biscuit taken on Shackleton's South Pole expedition was sold for almost £5,000.