A shop owner who survived Siberian labour camps and the German occupation of Poland has died, aged 91.

Peter Matwiejczuk was one of a group of Polish army officers who helped form a training school for the Seventh Polish Infantry in Uzbekistan.

After the war he changed his name to Peter Yardley and ran a general store in Saltdean with his wife Barbara for more than 25 years.

Mrs Yardley said: "Nobody could describe our shop we used to sell everything from stationery to wool, costume jewellery and sweets.

"He was a lovely husband. He kept things to himself. He wouldn't want to bother anybody with his problems but he wanted to help everybody with theirs.

"He'd had some very traumatic experiences during the war though. He was treated horribly in the camps and it did haunt him."

Having escaped German forces during the early days of the Second World War, Mr Yardley was captured by the invaders' Russian allies and accused of being an enemy of the state.

He was sentenced to eight years hard labour in the notorious Siberian prison camps. However, the Nazis' pact with Russia soon deteriorated and the Germans turned against their allies.

Mrs Yardley said: "After the Germans attacked Russia, Peter was asked with everyone else in his camp to volunteer for the Red Army. Not surprisingly, none of them stepped forward."

The British later convinced the Russians to release the Poles so they could help fight the common enemy. Mr Yardley began organising thousands of Polish troops in nearby Uzbekistan.

He then joined the British Army and served in Iraq for six months before training to be a navigator for the RAF.

After the war he was stationed with the air force at Hendon and changed his name by deed poll. He met Barbara on a train. She had caught the wrong one and he took her for a cup of tea while she waited for her connection.

They married in 1948 and later moved to Saltdean.

Mr Yardley left the Air Force and the couple opened Yardleys in Longridge Avenue.

The couple have one daughter, Krysia, a clinical psychologist who went to Varndean School and appeared on BBC2's Open University during the Seventies.

The couple, who retired in 1974, also have two grand-daughters, Andrea, 27, and Keira, 26. Mrs Yardley said the war left an indelible mark on her husband.

She said: "It may be history but we're still doing the same stupid things. I feel sorry for mothers of the boys in Iraq. Who would want their children to go there?

"Peter thought all wars were horrendous."

Mr Yardley died of an aneurysm at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton a week ago.

His funeral will be held at The Downs Crematorium, Bear Road, Brighton, on Monday, at 3pm.