A CAMPAIGN to bring Wallace Hartley’s last letter back to his home town has received a huge boost from a TV star.

Nigel Hampson, curator of the Titanic Museum in Lancashire, is seeking to bring the note back to the Pendle town, as it is placed up for auction in the US.

Now former Heartbeat star Jack Marsden has stepped in with a £2,000 pledge - and a mystery benefactor has walked into the Church Street museum with a £1,000 donation.

Supporters had already raised between £500 and £600 towards the estimated £3,500 reserve price of the letter.

Mr Hampson said: “We have now raised enough to get into the auction, after Jack Marsden came forward.

“But we still need to continue raising money because we expect it will be going for far more than the actual reserve price.”

In the last letter, penned on April 10, shortly before the Titanic departed from Southampton, he sings the praises of the ill-fated White Star liner.

He wrote: “This is a fine ship ... I shall probably arrive home on Sunday morning.”

If secured, the letter would take pride of place in the Titanic museum, based in the Old Colne Grammar School, which opened last August.

Hartley and his fellow band members cemented their place in Titanic folklore after they famously played on, as the ship sank, with the loss of 1,517 lives.

The auction will take place in New Hampshire on April 19.