WILLIE PARR Lifeboatman Willie Parr* sailed into history when a brewery decided to immortalise him.

*The story of Willie Parr appeared in the Manchester edition of the Daily Mirror on December 13, 1972.

Victorian hero Willie, veteran of a thousand raging storms, was the very man they wanted to give the right spirit to the labels on their bottles of rum.

When he died his son was told: 'Let us use Willie's photo on the label—and we'll send you and the lifeboat crew free bottles every Christmas for as long as we make it'.

And for sixty years the bottle of 'Sou' Wester Rum'—with Willie in his yellow oilskins resplendent on the front—arrived without fail at the family's home in Blackpool.

But then a brewery boob left his grandson high and dry . . . with no free Christmas spirit to toast the memory of the family hero.

It seemed that the sun was about to set on Willie and his 'sou' wester, for grandson Billy Parr, 78, retired cox'n of the same seaside lifeboat as Willie threatened: 'No more rum—no more granddad on the label.' At his home in Erdington Road, Blackpool, last night Billy said: 'Our family have been getting the free bottle of rum at Christmas for more than 60 years'.

'The original brewery was taken over some years ago, but before that happened one of their managers told me I would receive a free bottle of rum every Christmas.

'The bottle didn't arrive last year but I was told by the new brewery that while I wouldn't get one, they would keep on sending bottles to the Blackpool lifeboat crew.

'But then this week when the lifeboat lads had their annual supper there wasn't a bottle for them.' Last night, however, the storm was subsiding, for a spokesman for Warrington brewers Greenall Whitley admitted: 'It's our mistake'.

'The mix-up happened because the man who dealt with this particular job had been moved and no one was put in his place.

'The Christmas rum is now on its way—and we'll make sure it keeps on going.'.