A SECOND World War veteran who was held in a brutal Japanese prisoner of war camp for three years has died.

William Whittaker, known as Bill, was starved and beaten by his captors and even contracted malaria while he was held on the tropical island of Celebes in South East Asia.

Mr Whittaker, from Blackburn, died on Saturday aged 87 due to problems with a stomach ulcer, a complaint that he always blamed on his time as a prisoner of war.

His friend Eveline Whalley said that he had a "heart of gold" but up to his death was still bitter at his treatment during the war.

Mrs Whalley said: "Bill went through hell as a prisoner of war.

"It was three and a half years at the hands of sadistic and cruel captors.

"He was treated so badly and used to tell me all about it.

"He was given just a cup of rice to eat each day. If he was given a boiled radish top it was seen as a bonus."

Speaking to this newspaper in 1985, Mr Whittaker said: "I can never have a full meal. I just nibble at things. I'm afraid the Japs ruined my appetite forever."

Mr Whittaker, who lived in Bower Street, Mill Hill, was a traffic warden in Blackburn town centre after the war but was forced to retire because of a shoulder injury.

He was a life-long member of the Furthergate Working Men's Club.

Mr Whittaker joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and went off to war. The able seaman married his sweetheart Elizabeth while on leave in 1941. He returned to Blackburn on the morning of Saturday, March 8, was married in the afternoon and left to go back to war on the Sunday.

It was the last time that they saw each other for four-and-a-half years.

In March 1942 he was aboard HMS Exeter in the Java Sea when it was torpedoed by the Japanese and he was taken captive.

He was regularly beaten by guards, was forced to sleep on a stable floor and he contracted malaria.

When the war ended in 1945 he was still not freed immediately and it was only when a ship carrying Lord Mountbatten discovered the island camp months after the war ended that he was allowed home.

Mrs Whalley said: "He had such a hard time during the war and he deserves to be remembered."

After the war Mr Whittaker returned to Blackburn and his new wife.

They didn't have any children and Elizabeth passed away in 1992.

No arrangements for Mr Whittaker's funeral have yet been made.