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Chris is a former British soldier and served with the Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Armoured Corps and then with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. He served with the British Army of the Rhine in West Germany and UK as a Chieftain Tank and Ferret scout car crewman. He served operational tours of duty in Northern Ireland and also with UN Peace Keeping Forces in Cyprus, during the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of 1974.

After his army service, Chris served as a firefighter and Crew Commander with Avon Fire and Rescue Service and also as a professional falconer right up to his recent retirement.

Today Chris finds his time taken up as "Honorary Poppy Appeal Organiser" of the Ypres branch of the Royal British Legion and as the European Representative of the "Northern Ireland Veterans Association".

Milena was born in Czechoslovakia and later lived in Amsterdam. She worked as Tour Manager of European tours for 20 years.

It was while researching one of her tours, that she visited the Flanders Fields, and decided to settle down in Ypres together with Chris, sharing his passion for the Great War.

Now she runs the Li'lle Gate Guest House and amongst her many other activities spends her spare time translating articles for the Czech Veterans and Legionnaires Association magazine in Prague.

She often visits her country's WW2 veterans and has just been officially decorated for her work with them.

Katie the Border collie was bred on a hill farm in Ireland.

She was originally purchased to herd sheep; however, it was as a trained falconry dog, working with Chris and his Peregrine falcon, that she earned her accolades and went on to become a superb member of the team.

Her scent locating and pointing skills brought many admirers, she has appeared in many TV documentaries and the Border collie magazine "Freedom of Spirit" gave her a full page dedication.

She is and will always be, a dog in a million to us! As befitting to a grand old lady in retirement, she spends most of her time pleasing our guests and laying by the fire, dreaming of a long gone successful peregrine's stoop, ending with a well deserved roast pheasant dinner for all!