A REFUGEE who escaped the Spanish Civil war as a child was a special guest at a Bradford museum's exhibition on how the UK helped Basque refugees.

Maria Luisa Incera escaped from Franco's bombing of the Basques in the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and fled to England as a refugee before settling and making a life for herself.

She recently visited The Peace Museum to see an exhibition on these refugee children and the role of Bradford in supporting them.

The event was an opportunity for people to view the exhibition, produced by the Basque Children of ’37 Association UK, and see a film screening of ‘The Guernica Children’ a film produced in association with the BC’37A.

Maria, who lived in refugee camps in Hull and Scarborough, was presented with a replica arrival card featuring her original number by Carmen Kilner Sanchez treasurer of the Basque Children of '37 Association, and even got to meet a more recent refugee from Syria.

More than 50 people attended the event at the museum. The exhibition looks at how the children were dealt with locally - there were refugee centres at the former Dr Barnardo children’s home on Manningham Lane and the Morton Banks Sanatorium in East Riddlesden.

It runs at the museum in Piece Hall Yard until next month.