ONE of the few Basque children who fled war in Spain more than 60 years ago and settled in the North-East has died.

In 1937, about 4,000 Basque children - many orphans - fled the civil war and 200 were put up in the North-East - at Hutton Hall, near Guisborough; St Peter's Orphanage at Gainford and St Mary's Orphanage, Tudhoe.

Fermin Magdalena, who has died aged 81, was one of only a few to stay on. His funeral is today at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Middlesbrough.

Mr Magdalena fled Bilbao with his two sisters and younger brother. His father pushed them aboard a boat bound for England in the middle of night.

"I thought it was great," he told The Northern Echo a couple of years ago. "We were going to have three months' holiday in a foreign country. I never thought I would still be here 65 years later."

The children were moved to Hutton Hall. Their parents fled Franco's army and ended up in a refugee camp in France, where Fermin's father died.

With no home to return to, Mr Magdalena and his sister Pilar remained in the North-East. He first worked as a footman in Ormesby Hall and then in the Co-op's coal depot in Middlesbrough. When the Second World War broke out, he joined the Home Guard.

After the war, he married Sheila Woodhouse, daughter of a Middlesbrough grocer, and became a manager for Fred Hall's fruit wholesaler before moving to Shildon to help set up Geest's banana factory.

On his retirement, Mr Magdalena moved to Brompton near Northallerton. He leaves three daughters and five grandchildren, and his sister, Pilar, who lives in Shildon.

A Requiem Mass today starts at 9.30am, and there is a reception afterwards at the Bluebell Hotel.