HOSPITAL ships once played a vital role in conflicts around the globe, before evacuation by air became the norm.

HMHS Panama, for instance, spent 45 years sailing up and down the Mediterranean, taking care of some 30,000 casualties in the two world wars, as well as numerous conflicts in the Twenties and Thirties.

Probably the most unusual evacuation the ship ever carried out was in January, 1917, when she sailed from Salonica in northern Greece to Malta.

Instead of carrying hundreds of wounded and sick soldiers, this time, for reasons best known to those who took the decision, the numbers were much reduced.

For, from records it appears that HMHS Panama carried just one patient on that particular trip – Private George Willie Snape, of the East Lancs Regiment, who lived in Sarah Street, Darwen.

Five days later the vast ship's log shows: "Berthed at Hamilton Wharf, Malta. Patient discharged."

It must have been a strange Mediterranean cruise for George Willie as he became known – looked after by a handful of doctors and dozens of nurses!

He might have been discharged from the Panama but he spent six months in hospitals in Malta before he was well enough to be shipped on to Marseilles, and a further four months before he made it back home.

The voyage to France was a nightmare; poor food, off rusty tin plates, water that was barely drinkable – and there were a lot more wounded to be looked after this time.

Like most members of the Armed Forces he never spoke about his war service or the injuries he sustained.

He just told his family that he had been in charge of the mules and one had given him a hefty kick in the stomach.

He was only a little chap, barely 5ft 2in and 7st 9lbs, but he volunteered in 1915, soon after marrying Nancy Duxbury at Railway Road Methodist Church.

After the war George became Liberal agent for the Darwen Constituency. He was always something of a wag. He was asked by Wilfred Pickles on his radio show where exactly Darwen was.

George Willie was ready for him. "Well, you've heard of Bolton?" Yes. "And you've heard of Blackburn?" An "um" from Wilfred. "Well, they're suburbs of Darwen!"

As Coun Snape, he became Mayor of Darwen in 1963 and a civic reception was held at the Co-op Hall. It didn't go down particularly well with the handful of local reporters, however, for George Willie was a staunch Rechabite and they had to sip their way through grapefruit juice all afternoon.