Heraldist, WWII vet, Jiří Louda dies at 94

Jiří Louda, WWII veteran and one of the country’s top heraldists, has died at the age of 94. Mr Louda designed around 200 town and municipality coat-of-arms as well as the Large State Emblem of the Czech Republic, based on heraldic symbols going back centuries. In WWII, Mr Louda made his way to Great Britain where he signed up as a paratrooper; he was later imprisoned by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia and released in 1950.