IF ever there was a model ''jolly postman'' it should have been Evan Jasper.

People from miles around Bewdley remember him as the sort of postman who did more than just deliver letters.

As he saw it, part of his job was to look after the elderly living alone. He might take them the newspaper or the odd prescription and often stop for a chat before retiring 16 years ago.

Behind Mr Jasper's ready laugh and good nature lies another life as his commitment to the Royal British Legion, Far Eastern Prisoner of War Society and the Labour Camps Survivors Association suggest.

He spent over three years in a Japanese POW camp witnessing appalling scenes and survived work on the notorious Far Eastern rail track.

On his return he was admitted to Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester, his health having never completely recovered.

When Mr Jasper joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment at the age of 20 he was well prepared, as a son of a hardworking miner.

His father, a First World War veteran, said when young Evan signed up: ''I don't want you to go. They'll just throw you away like us.'' His son was looking forward, however, to his adventure and seeing Singapore. ''Little did I know,'' he says now.

At 79, Mr Jasper of Wyre Hill, Bewdley, recalls perpetually changing schools as his father found work in different mines. He left school at 14 and started work the following Monday.

He was asked at an interview: ''Can you do the work of two men?'' His youthful willingness sentenced him to months carrying huge steel rods. The next job in a dairy was tipping 300 churns a day from 6am until 8pm for £1 a week.

There was, however, the exciting position with an aircraft maker as Britain prepared for war.

He also has happy memories of camaradie during the war and many funny stories to tell.

After demob he became a postman in Kidderminster but rejected promotion in favour of ''freedom'' on the Bewdley round.

This also allowed more time to work a smallholding at his parents' house at Cross Bank where he and his wife Cynthia also built their home and brought up two children.

The couple share romantic memories of meeting more than 50 years ago. She was picking honeysuckle the other side of a hedge he was cutting.

Another outstanding memory was during his trip to London last May to protest at the visit of Emperor Akihito.

A young Japanese girl sidled up to him and said: ''Emperor not say sorry for terrible things. Please accept my apologies instead.'' It was in Mr Jasper's nature to be moved. ''It was not you, nor even your father. It was your grandfather,'' he reassured her.