A Whitstable restaurant owner who “changed the town for the better” three decades ago has died less than a year after his beloved business burned down.

Peter Bennett, who ran the Crab and Winkle Restaurant and Whitstable Fish Market, was a familiar and friendly face in the harbour.

His business, which he ran with wife Elizabeth, was destroyed on May 26 last year by a blaze that took hold from the neighbouring cockle shed, despite firefighters’ best efforts.

Recently, just weeks after a trip to Arizona - which Mrs Bennett called their “secret world” - his health deteriorated and he died suddenly on April 13, aged 76.

Mrs Bennett explained: “We are told life is wonderful, and it was, for Peter and I.

“We had a very special connection which you had to have if you played, worked and lived every day together.”

Speaking of her husband’s heartache following the fire, she added: “One of the fishermen said when Peter sat looking devastated on the afternoon of the fire, you could see all the life had been wiped out of him.”

Mr Bennett, of Birchington, served in the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment for 22 years and then worked at St Augustine's Fish Supplies Ltd from 1984.

In 1990 the business moved to Whitstable Harbour, which at the time was dubbed a "great big empty shed” by Mr Bennett.

By 1994 he would launch the Whitstable Fish Market and in 1999 the Crab & Winkle Restaurant above.

Mrs Bennett added: “Peter started the movement in Whitstable.

“The harbour is nothing compared to what it was a year ago, which was a vibrant place with its fish market.

“It was a very successful business and he changed Whitstable for the better because until then it was a hip town with a rundown working harbour.

“He took over the fish market and he brought the fish in.

“Someone told him to stick a restaurant on top of it and everyone said it wouldn’t last, but the place was always choc-a-bloc.

“From all over the world, everyone knows about the Crab and Winkle Restaurant.”

The couple were at a stalemate with Canterbury City Council, which owns the premises, over the repair works.

An incident report from the fire service revealed the blaze was caused accidentally by sparks from a grinder used by a workman outside, near the former cockle shed.

The sparks reportedly entered the building through a gap in the wall.

It is understood work was being carried out by contractors on behalf of the city council to build a new car park in the harbour.

Mr Bennett had recently said his “heart was broken” by the loss of the business and “felt sorrow” for his wife with “all the hard work she put in to make it great again”.

His widow said: “He was gentle, soft and kind.

“He was my little soldier, and until the day I die I am going to miss him.

“He was a fun-loving guy but he was a proud man and devastated at the mess we’ve had to deal with over the past year.

“Whitstable has lost a splendid man.”

Speaking earlier this year, the couple told how the quote they received to put the inside of the building back together was about £2 million.

However, their insurers had a ceiling of £1.2 million so they would have to find the rest.

And a question mark has hung over where the remaining £800,000 would come from.

Mrs Bennett has now launched a campaign to help raise £35,000 for legal fees.

“We were told by some lawyers in Margate who said it was too big a case for them to handle and that we need to go to the big boys in London,” she said.

“They are happy to act for us but it’s going to cost £35,000, which the company or I don’t have.

“I pledged in my eulogy to fight in his name for justice.”