THE Prime Minister has led the tributes to a Darwen-born Prisoner of War who led the fight for compensation after he died aged 88.

David Cameron said Arthur Titherington was a 'remarkable man'.

Mr Titherington spent 1,300 days as a prisoner in Taiwan during the Second World War after being captured by the Japanese when Singapore fell in 1942.

In 2000, his campaigning led to £10,000 compensation being paid to every PoW by the British Government, but he died without ever receiving an apology from the Japanese Government.

Mr Cameron said: “Arthur was a remarkable man with a true sense of public service.

“We should never forget how much he suffered during the Second World War and his service on behalf of our country.

“He fought tirelessly for decades on behalf of his fellow Japanese prisoners of war, championing their campaign for fairness and justice.

“I was fortunate to meet Arthur on many occasions and I know how much he will be missed by all who knew him.”

Mr Tithertington lived in Darwen until lied about his aged and joined the army in 1938 aged 17.

He was taken prisoner in 1942 and was marched to the slave labour camp of Kinkaseki, where he worked in a copper mine for three years.

Beatings and a near-starvation diet took their toll and when he was finally liberated in 1945 he weighed just five-and-a-half stone, exactly half the weight he was when he joined the army as a motor cycle dispatch rider.

He was one of only 90 people who survived from a group of 522.

Later he said: “The scars on my body have healed but there remain scars that I am unable to show.

“Almost four years of irrecoverable youth were left in the depth of that mine. I do not forgive. I do not forgive."

Mr Titherington moved to Oxford after the war and worked as a policeman and wrote a book, called One Day at a Time about his experience of a British soldier.

Close friend Gordon Clack said: “Arthur was a fighter and a strong man who didn’t take fools lightly."

Mr Titherington died at on Sunday, September 19 at Merryfield Nursing Home, Witney, Oxon. He had been suffering with Parkinson’s and Paget’s disease.