A red beret worn by Hollywood star and World War Two paratrooper Richard Todd OBE is set to fetch £6,000 at auction.

The actor - who starred in The Dam Busters - bravely dropped into occupied France with the 7th Battalion Parachute Regiment on D-Day in 1944.

He then helped Major John Howard to hold Pegasus Bridge, over the Caen Canal, which crucially limited the effectiveness of the German counter-attack.

But his heroism during the battle later came into use when he played Major Howard in the 1962 film about the famed fight, The Longest Day, where he wore this beret.

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Todd was born in Dublin, Ireland, and initially trained at Sandhurst, in Berkshire, before giving up a promising military career to take to the stage prior to the outbreak of war.

As a Hollywood leadingman, he also won a Golden Globe for ‘best newcomer’ and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Hasty Heart.

The beret is being sold alongside folders of personal correspondence and film role paperwork - both found in his house following his death in 2009 from cancer.

They will be available in Tennants Auctioneers’ Militaria and Ethnographica Sale on June 26 and are expected to fetch between £5,000 and £6,000.

A fine Viking sword from the second half of the 10th century will also feature at the sale.

It is thought to have been discovered in the River Witham, just outside of Lincoln in 1936, and has since been held in private collections.

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Danish Vikings began making raids and expeditions across the North Sea in the middle of the 9th century, seeking wealth and fertile land.
 
Lincoln and surrounding farmlands were soon settled, with the town becoming a prime trading post with easy access to Denmark from the small port built on the river.
 
Indeed, numerous street names in the city still refer to the Vikings and their industries and many Lincolnshire village names retain their Viking roots.

It is expected to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000.