Battling the mental scars of war took Richie Bartle to places as dark as those he encountered on the blood-soaked frontline in Afghanistan. The traumatic events Richie experienced drove him to drink and sinister thoughts of suicide.

Thankfully, the 34-year-old from Kenilworth, who served for many years as a machine gunner, sought the help he needed to 'get back on track'. The married dad-of-two has reconciled the harrowing memories that had been 'too painful to confront' and is now able to talk about them openly.

Richie is doing just that in a series of events he and Luke Weetman, his close friend and business partner, are hosting at the gin distillery they launched late last year. Gin, Tonic & Tales With UK Special Forces allows Richie to share experiences from his 12 years in the British military in an environment that also enables him and Luke to showcase their popular Heritage Gin brand.

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"A lot of my experiences I didn't deal with in an appropriate way," Richie explained. "I did not talk about them, but drank more and more until I came to a really low point in my life.

"A friend set up a meeting with an ex-servicemen at Rock2Recovery who had come through post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) themselves. That was really important because you need the help of people who have been through this stuff.

"When you're in that dark place, with terrible thoughts, suicidal thoughts, you can't think about other things. They helped me navigate through those issues and were a great help in getting me on the right track and to a much better place."

Held in East Chase Distillers' base at East Chase Farm, on the outskirts of Kenilworth, the talks act as a form of catharsis for Richie and have really captured the public's imagination. The latest one, which takes place this Friday, has sold out, though tickets are still available for the next event on the first Saturday in September.

"I talk about what's expected of you in the military because there's often interest in that," Richie says. "I don't really get asked anything too difficult. I talk about leaving the military, setting up the distillery and how there are a lot of parallels between the army and business.

"War is life and death. In business, it's life and death of one's company. Quite a few things are irrelevant, like shooting and parachuting.

"But the mindset of having to be flexible, thinking on your feet and changing to the environment can definitely be applied to the world of business. There are a lot of things outside of your control, just like in combat."

After enlisting the expert help of mental health charity Rock2Recovery some years ago, Richie reached a more positive place where he could contemplate civilian life, the prospect of a family and a job beyond the military. It was then that Richie and Luke first began to discuss a potential venture that, unbeknownst to them, they had secretly been plotting in some form.

The birth of his first child late in 2019 prompted Richie to call time on an extensive military career that started with the Royal Marines and included five punishing tours of Afghanistan where he became all too accustomed to losing close friends and allies. After being discharged, Richie pushed on with the business proposition he and Luke had previously outlined.

The vision was for a modest gin production start-up within a ramshackle barn on the farm that Luke's family own and maintain. That vision grew larger until, after six long years of graft, a polished distillery was ready to make and sell its bespoke gin range, which currently stands at four flavours.

As well as a major outlay on the building itself, which only became more expensive as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Richie and Luke splashed out huge sums on an industry-leading Holstein still, made in Germany, to make their gin and the invaluable expertise of Jamie Baker, who has helped set up countless gin distilleries in the UK in recent years.

Just to make life more difficult the creative pair custom-made their bottles, going through several safety tests before they were certified, and they designed all the branding in-house.

"We were really happy with how it all turned out and now we have a business we can truly call our own," Richie added.

"We wanted a bottle that would really stand out and tasted great. That's why we went to the lengths of getting this still and the advice of Jamie Baxter. He's been in the industry for 18 years and what he doesn't know isn't worth knowing."

Now Richie and Luke, Kenilworth School alumni who had never previously made gin before going into business, are passing on what they know through these talks. Darren Tosh, operations director at Warwickshire tourist body Shakespeare’s England, says the events reflect Richie and Luke's entrepreneurial spirit.

"Consumers are understandably wanting more value for their money nowadays, and experiences play a big part in that, as Richie and Luke have recognised," he said. "East Chase Distillers is a great reminder of the value of looking at what is on your doorstep, and that you don’t have to go very far at all to be entertained."

For more information about the distillery, and for tickets to Gin, Tonic & Tales With UK Special Forces, visit the website.

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