The Ambassador also presented Mr Hoida with a personal letter of congratulations from President Petr Pavel. The Ambassador was also accompanied by the Embassy's Military Attaché, Brigadier General Vratislav Beran, who presented Mr Hoida with a personal letter from Defence Minister Jana Černochová and a commemorative medal to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Mr Hoida was born on 30 November 1918 in Ostrava. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he fled the country and served in France and later with the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade in the United Kingdom. After D-Day he took part in the liberation of Europe and returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945. However, he returned to the UK a few months later due to the growing communist threat. Mr Hoida lives in the UK with his wife in Wirral, near Liverpool.

Watch the interview with Mr Hoida for our project Children of Heroes: