A GRANDFATHER has died after suffering serious head injuries when he tackled burglars who raided his Spanish holiday home.

Retired BT worker Joseph McCaughran, 69, was dragged along the road by the burglars' getaway car as he tried to stop them making off with a camcorder containing precious memories of his four-month-old grandson Jack.

He died from a blood clot on his brain nine days later.

Wife Sheila, who watched in horror as Joseph was injured, said today the whole family was absolutely shattered.

Sheila, of Walden Road, Wilpshire, Ribble Valley, said: "It is just a tragic waste of life. I think he reacted to somebody taking the film of his grandson.

"It was instinct, he was protecting his own."

Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw today said: "I am very concerned. I will take this matter up on behalf of the family and constituency MP Nigel Evans."

Joe, who retired as a technical officer in 1994, had gone to the holiday home in Torrevieja -- about 25 miles south of Alicante -- with wife Sheila.

For the first time daughter Kerry, her fiance Stephen Maguire and their four-month-old son Jack went with them.

Sheila, who was married to Joe for 25 years after meeting him at work when they were both based in Blackburn, said she and her husband were sunbathing in the garden at around 4pm when a thief burst passed them after gaining entrance through the upstairs balcony.

He had snatched the camcorder from Stephen and Kerry's bedroom while they were out with Jack.

Joe confronted him and chased him to where an accomplice was waiting in a car.

Sheila, a performance analyst at BT in Wigan, said: "Joe nearly caught up with him and held on to the door handle.

"His shoulder and back were badly cut and there was quite a lot of blood on his head."

Sheila rang for an ambulance which took Joe to the main hospital in the province of Orihuela -- some 20 miles away.

After X-rays he returned back to the house. Later that night his speech began to slur and Joe complained about the loss of feeling in his legs.

He was taken to the nearby hospital in Torrevieja where he underwent a brain scan which revealed a blood clot and immense swelling on his brain.

Joe had surgery that night. He remained in the intensive care unit and died nine days later on Wednesday June 28 -- six days after his 69th birthday.

His family were at his bedside. The couple's son, also called Joe, 21, a university student from Wilpshire, had flown over to be with him.

Sheila said: "Friends and family have been wonderful. We made a lot of friends in Spain and they have been ringing up asking how things are. He was a popular man."

Joe also leaves a son Michael from a previous marriage. His funeral service and cremation will take place on Thursday at Pleasington Crematorium at 2pm.

Spanish police are investigating the incident.

The family's MP Nigel Evans said: "I am horrified by this appalling incident.

"I hope that the Spanish police will catch the murderers and bring the full force of the law down on them so they get hefty sentences.

"I shall be asking the Foreign Secretary to use his influence with his counterpart in Spain to make sure that the full force of law is brought to bear in this case and that compensation is paid to the family in Britain."

An inquest into the death was due to open today in Blackburn by coroner Michael Singleton.