A YORK man who worked with distinction in the Evening Press photography department despite losing much of his sight in a Japanese prisoner-of-wWar camp has died, aged 88.

Tributes have been paid to Raymond Richards, of Huntington, who had been suffering from a long illness.

His widow, Marie, said: "He was the nicest man on earth. He never said a bad word about anyone and everybody loved him."

Raymond worked at the Evening Press, in the paper's former Coney Street headquarters, for over ten years until he retired in 1979.

He was known as a skilful printer and darkroom operative, even though his sight was severely damaged after he was starved by his Japanese captors in the Second World War.

An RAF photographer, Raymond was serving on the island of Java when it fell into enemy hands and he was captured.

Marie, his wife of 55 years, said: "His weight fell to five stone and he had malaria. He had extraordinary willpower to get through it."

The couple first met before the war, not face-to-face, but by letter, as Marie, who is Belgian, was Raymond's pen-pal.

She said: "We wrote regularly but when Raymond was a prisoner it was much less often, though we had the odd card through the Red Cross.

"We started again after the war, and Raymond came to see me in Belgium.

"He asked me to marry him and I said yes."

The couple's daughter, Anne, said: "He suffered so much in the war, and in some ways it ruined his life. Yet he never complained. He enjoyed his life and was one of the most patient and kind men on earth."

Evening Press picture editor Martin Oates said he remembers Raymond from his time as a trainee photographer. "He was a very likeable man who passed on his expertise to all the photographic staff and, although his sight was very poor, he was an excellent printer."

As well as Anne, Raymond is survived by another daughter, Monique, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His funeral is due to be held on Tuesday, in St Paulinus's Church, Monkton Road, near Bell Farm.

Updated: 11:31 Thursday, February 28, 2002