A seaman who fought in the two best known convoys of the second world war, including the Santa Marija convoy to Malta, has passed away.

Robert Alwyn Taylor, 93, was a torpedo and weapons rating on HMS Ledbury, a Hunt class destroyer that helped save the famous tanker Ohio from sinking by being strapped to it as it entered Grand Harbour on August 15, 1942.

Robert Alwyn Taylor.

"I think that being strapped to a possible floating inferno was probably one of the most fearful moments he experienced during the time he spent in the Royal Navy. His accounts of being assigned to teams that were responsible for removing the remains of his fellow seamen that had been trapped below when fire had abated, were some of his most harrowing and rare recollections," his grand-daughter Jane Holmes wrote on Facebook.

Mr Taylor lived quietly in a semi-rural area of East Lancashire England, but every November attended the memorial for the fallen and wore his medals and poppies with pride and sadness.

In the second world war he fought in the ill-fated Arctic convoy PQ17 to Russia, the invasions of Italy, France and North Africa and other campaigns.

"During the (Santa Marija) convoy HMS Ledbury acted as a guide for the tanker Ohio after it lost navigational capability early in the voyage.

"Ledbury did so by shining a stern light for the Ohio to follow, in a similar way that the star led Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. I write this in the hope that the people of Malta can help him on his last journey, by lighting a candle and saying a prayer for him as he passes peacefully to the next life," Ms Holmes wrote.