A WAR hero who worked on the infamous Burma railway, was seen by millions of television viewers at the VJ Day commemorations at the weekend.

Tom Boardman, 97, who joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps as a 21-year-old newly married lad from Howe Bridge, led the Far East Prisoners of War prayer at the remembrance service at St Martin-in-the-Field Church in London, on Saturday.

He was then wheeled in his wheelchair along Whitehall where cheering crowds were ten deep, by his son Ron, to a Royal British Legion reception where met Prince Charles' wife, Camila.

It was a fitting recognition for Tom of Leigh, who endured some of the most horrific conditions of World War Two.

He was a prisoner of war for four years and had to work from daybreak until dusk on the railway in unbearable heat and with little food. His weight dropped to just six stones and he contracted malaria 32 times as well as dysentery.

But despite the hell, Tom says he survived while thousands of others died, because he had the will to live and the spirit to keep him going.

And one thing which he kept with him through the horrors of the POW camp was a ring given to him by his wife Irene.

He hid it in a piece of hollowed out soap to stop the Japanese soldiers taking it.

He brought it back to England after the war ended and he wore it with pride at the weekend.

Read Tom's war story and about his famous ukulele in this week's Leigh Journal.