TRIBUTES have been paid to a former German prisoner of war who died on Sunday after spending nearly 60 years living and working in the region.

Franz Kamp, known as Frank, was captured in August 1944. He was imprisoned in Italy and the US before being brought to England in 1946.

He met his future wife, Patricia Goodhall, while doing farm work on the outskirts of Leeds. They later married and had five children.

Mr Kamp trained in engineering at night school and, in 1964, he started work as a civil engineer for Durham County Council, where he was one of the leading lights in designing the new Elvet Bridge, in Durham.

Former colleague and fellow bridge engineer Joe Coulthard said last night: "Frank was a talented and dedicated bridge engineer, who played a key role in enabling the pedestrianisation of Durham city centre in the 1970s.

"He led the team that designed and built the new Elvet Bridge, which opened in 1975. It enabled the pedestrianisation of Elvet and Framwellgate bridges and removed through- traffic from the historic centre of the city."

Mr Kamp retired in 1983 and moved to York. His wife died in 1992 at the age of 67. He married his second wife, Susan, 54, in February.

Speaking yesterday from the home they shared in Strensall, she said: "He was a very proud man. He was very clever, and very honest and hardworking. He was the perfect gentleman - very old school."

Mr Kamp campaigned to win a pardon for British soldiers shot for cowardice during the First World War.

He said the British Government had a moral obligation to pardon the 306 troops, including 87 from Northern regiments, shot by firing squads in the Great War.

He wrote a book about his childhood and his experiences in the war and had started work on a second when he died on Sunday, in York Hospital, aged 83. Mrs Kamp is now planning to finish the book for him.

His funeral will take place on Monday at York Crematorium, Bishopthorpe, at 3pm.