LAID out on Eric Austin’s kitchen table at his home in Hallow, near Worcester, is a piece of history. On the face of it, the collection of unremarkable looking, but obviously well kept woodenhandled tools, inscribed with the letter A, wouldn’t go amiss in the average tool box.

Look a little closer, and you’ll see each steel chisel is carefully and precisely shaped for a specific purpose. And in the hands of a master craftsman, they helped to shape the most famous ocean liner in history – the Titanic.

The tools, some dating back to over 100 years ago, belonged to Mr Austin’s father, Arthur Alfred Austin. Born in London in 1892 in the same street which was once home to Charles Dickens, Arthur was one of seven siblings and it seemed he inherited his interest in wood carving from his father John, who was a pianoforte maker.

“Dad said he used to go to work in a top hat,” said Eric.

At the age of 18, Arthur began as an apprentice woodcarver at his brother-in-law’s firm Singletons. It was there he would cement his place in history.

Eric said: “They took all the seats out of a cinema and put up tressel tables and the carvers worked in lines. They carved wood panelling and staircasing. The panels had scenes of the sea – waves, mermaids, fishes. It was luxury.”

Once completed, the pieces of the grand sweeping staircases and intricate wood panelling were transported by train from London to Southampton, where the empty interior of the Titanic was painstakingly pieced together with the finest materials.

Sadly, Arthur’s workmanship was not to last. The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, leading to the deaths of more than 1,500 people. Arthur remained at Singletons until 1914, when he was called up to serve his country in the First World War.

He was a bandsman in the Royal Fusiliers, but Eric said it would be wrong to assume he did not see his share of frontline action.

“He said being a bandsman probably saved his life,” said Eric.

“His regiment was more or less obliterated and he was transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers. He did do things like stretcher bearing and grave digging.”

Post-war Britian, the Depression and a thirst for manufacturing would signal the decline of traditional skilled crafts such a wood carving. Plaster moulding was faster, easier and cheaper.

Arthur travelled the country looking for jobs, including to Reading where he met his wife-tobe Dorothy Boshier. They married in 1922 and Arthur’s work would take them to Bristol, Burton-on- Trent, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Birmingham, before settling in Rainbow Hill, Worcester, in 1924.

He found employment with local firm Houghtons, and was involved in carving pieces for Alfred Allsopp MP, son of the 1st Baron Hindlip, at his home Mount Battenhall – now St Mary’s Convent – and a list honouring those from the county who served in the First World War, which still stands in the Guildhall.

With a wife and the imminent birth of his first child, Arthur finished his carving career to work for the Co-operative in the insurance department until his retirement in 1957.

“He really loved wood carving and he was disappointed when it all finished,” said Eric, a retired PE and English teacher and former international marathon runner Arthur continued to carve in his spare time, alongside his other passion of gardening. He created a wreath for a crystal vase that Eric won during his first run for Great Britain in Czechaslovakia in 1963.

The father-of-three died aged 90 and many of his collection of tools first went to Eric’s brother Denis before his death five years ago.

They are now in the care of a friend of Eric’s, except for three – two general chisels and a wood carver’s mallett emblazoned with the initials of Arthur’s colleagues.