A life marked by courage and the determination to survive

Arthur Gomes may have been able to forgive what the Japanese prison guards did to him and other Hong Kong prisoners of war but he was never able to forget.

The extrovert Portuguese national with a lively sense of humour died in Queen Mary Hospital after being admitted on Sunday with a high fever and chest infection. He was 90.

For most of his life, Gomes worked in the shipping industry. He worked well into his eighties, most recently for the American Chamber of Commerce. The MBE holder, who founded the Hong Kong Prisoners of War Association in 1954, was a survivor of the Battle of Hong Kong. He was active in servicemen's associations and worked hard in the interests of their families.

He was full of stories. Some he would tell with his customary hearty laugh. Others were not funny.

Gomes used to recall the 'sports' prizes offered by Japanese guards at the prison camp in Sham Shui Po where low-ranking British, Indian and Canadian troops and members of the Hong Kong Volunteers spent three years and eight months.

'The first prize offered would be a tin of bully beef,' he recalled. 'We were all starving. We would run as fast as we could to win that prize, even the most wretched of us. But if you won, it meant you were the fittest and it was a one-way ticket to the mines of Japan.