PRIME Minister David Cameron paid tribute to a former prisoner of war who fought for an apology and compensation from the Japanese before his death, aged 88, in 2010.

Arthur Titherington was captured by the Japanese army when Singapore fell in 1942 and spent three years as a slave labourer in a copper mine on the island of Formosa – now Taiwan. When he was released he weighed little over five stone.

Following a 60-year fight, the former Witney mayor’s campaign did lead to the British Government in 2000 agreeing to pay £10,000 to every PoW, but the Japanese never said Shazai – an apology with an admission of sin.

Seventy years on from his liberation Mr Cameron, who met the Witney man on several occasions, praised his efforts.

A spokesman for Mr Cameron’s office said: “Mr Cameron met and corresponded with Arthur Titherington many times and had a huge admiration for all the work he did to help former Japanese PoWs.”

In May 1998 Mr Titherington joined hundreds of others who snubbed Emperor Akihito on a state visit to Buckingham Palace by turning his back on the Japanese leader Later that year Mr Titherington wept in Tokyo District Court during a four-hour hearing as the judge ruled the compensation already awarded – £76 each – was all the POWs were entitled to.

More than 250 people attended the former West Oxfordshire District Council leader’s funeral. He left two children and wife Iris who died in 2013 aged 93.