A cigar half-smoked by Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War has been snapped at auction in Whitchurch by breakfast television presenter and journalist Piers Morgan.

The Good Morning Britain star was alerted to the auction after Trevanion and Dean, based in Station Road, ran a piece in the Daily Mail, for whom the former Daily Mirror editor writes a column for.

He ended up in a bidding war with another private collector, eventually paying out £2,600, and while the auction house maintain their successful bidders' anonymity, the star took to Twitter on Saturday to announce he had made the purchase.

Christina Trevanion, partner at the firm, replied to his tweet, saying: "Delighted you are so pleased with your purchase from our auction @trevanion_dean @piersmorgan we hope you enjoy being the custodian of such a historically important Churchill artefact."

Aaron Dean added: "Piers was delighted with his purchase and messaged us to express his joy at acquiring such a historically important artefact for his collection.

"We hope he enjoys being its custodian, its gone from being owned by one PM to another (very different) PM."

Mr Dean explained more about the history of the cigar, which was picked up by Reverend Robert Rowland Evans who was chaplain on board the HMS Duke of York, upon which Churchill was sailing.

he added: "This particular cigar comes from an incredibly important point in our modern history, Churchill was sailing with his chief of Staff and military advisors to meet with Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbour and America’s entry into World War II to support the allies.

Churchill is known as one of the greatest leaders in our history, the ‘British Bulldog’ whose moral courage and patriotism helped steer the nation through World War II.

"The cigar is something we all instantly associate with Churchill, throughout his political career he was practically inseparable from his cigars, and here is a rare opportunity to be able to own on of Churchill’s personal cigars.

"Other ‘Churchill’ cigars have been offered on the open market but none from such a pivotal period in our history."