A SPANIARD who made his life in Bolton after a series of amazing wartime adventures has died.

Pedro Cuadrado became a much loved character in the town, setting up the area’s first Spanish bar and delighting friends with his love of life and his tenor voice.

Mr Cuadrado, of Halliwell Road, died last week, aged 88, in the Royal Bolton Hospital after a short illness.

The father-of-three, grandfather and great-grandfather had the kind of life read about in books.

And his story will not be forgotten — his life’s story has been recorded and stored at the Imperial War Museum for future generations to learn about the 20th century.

As a teenager living near Barcelona, he was conscripted into the Republican army fighting General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

He was among the survivors when a truck carrying soldiers was bombed at the battle of Ebro.

As Franco’s grip tightened, he fled across the Pyrenees to France with thousands of others, but many of his com-rades did not make it.

In France he was placed in a refugee camp but as the Germans invaded at the start of the Second World War, Mr Cuadrado fled towards Switzerland. He was caught and made a prisoner-of-war, and put to work helping the Nazis build an underground factory near Paris.

An attempt to escape failed when he was recaptured, but during his time in the camps he learned to speak five languages.

As the Allies gained ground in the war Mr Cuadrado found his future in the hands of the Americans. They passed him and his fellow Spaniards over to the British, who shipped their prisoners to England. Mr Cuadrado found himself interred in an army camp near Adlington, Chorley.

Two years later, after Mr Cuadrado became a spokesman for his comrades arguing with officials for their release, the men were freed and he settled in Bolton.

“Dad loved it here so he stayed,” said his son Carlos Cuadrado.

He worked for a textile company in Manchester and married Pauline, from whom he later separated, and they had children Elena, Carlos and Adrienne.

But Mr Cuadrado’s sociable nature was always present and he became well known for his singing in the Casablanca Tavern in the town each evening.

His love of people and introducing them to Spanish culture soon led him to set up his own bar.

“He used to have big barrels of wine from Spain which he would blend himself,” said Mr Cuadrado.

Eventually he moved to Halliwell Road where he started the famous Pedro’s Taverna, a meeting place for everyone from soap stars and footballers to ordinary working people.

“There was nowhere like it where people could meet and talk,” said Mr Cuadrado. He was famous for his chilli con carne and sangria.”

Mr Cuadrado gave up running the taverna in the 1990s, but still lived above the premises and his home remained a meeting place for his many friends until his death.

Mr Cuadrado’s funeral is tomorrow at 4pm at Overdale Crematorium.