He lives in Belgium, but wants to be Bell Island’s newest resident

Whenever the door opens at the British Grenadier Bookshop, proprietor Steve Douglas doesn’t know who is going to walk through.

The shop is located off the grand market square, near the Cloth Hall towers in Ypres, Belgium and down the street from the Menin Gate, where a Last Post ceremony is held every evening. The ceremony draws in people from all over the world who are interested in the First World War.

“I never expected to meet people from Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Singapore. We had some fellows from Nepal not too long ago. They come from all over,” Douglas told CBC News while seated behind the shop’s counter.

The store is filled with books on the First and Second World War, and military artifacts like trench maps and bayonets, bullets, fuses, shell casings, buckles, buttons and a stained glass lamp made from a helmet.

“You name it, we’ve probably got it,” said Douglas.

Douglas, who was born in Greenwich, U.K. but grew up in Kitchener, Ont., has been in Belgium for more than two decades because of his enduring interest in the First World War.

“I never in the world would have thought that I was going to be living in Belgium, owning a bookshop, be considered a battlefield expert and take people out and tell them all about what happened here,” he said.

“Never would have thought that would be a possibility, but there you go.”

But now there’s a new sign in his shop window: “Canada is not for sale. But, this shop is!”

Douglas is looking for someone to take over his business, which includes Salient Tours. His plan is to relocate to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Five years ago, he was on his way to making it happen. In 2019 he bought a house on Bell Island, and was in the process of getting it fixed up so he could move there. But then the global COVID-19 pandemic struck, and Douglas sold the property.

His plan is still to move to the province.

“Anywhere on the Avalon Peninsula might be of interest, but I really want to see whales and icebergs,” Douglas said, laughing.

He said his affinity for Newfoundland and Labrador came about in 2015, when he was looking for holiday inspiration. He was thinking about visiting to Namibia but realized he’d never been to Newfoundland, a place he’d always wanted to visit.

He said a friend in the province showed him around, and after a visit to Bell Island is where the draw started.

“It’s my kind of place,” said Douglas.

But while there’s been a “few nibbles” of interest, he’s yet to get a solid offer on his store.

“I’m motivated to sell, so I’m prepared to make a good deal,” he said. “I don’t want to see the shop close. It would be terrific if somebody could take it over and keep it going for another 10 or 20 years.”

‘Think about it’

In 1997, Douglas founded the Maple Leaf Legacy Project with the goal of photographing every Canadian war grave and putting them online so they could be accessible to everyone.

He was living in the U.K. for the project in the early 2000s, but by 2003 had moved to Ypres to work in a tour business for the shop’s previous owner. He bought the business in 2008.

He said he wanted to be in Ypres because it was the focal point for the Western Front for the Commonwealth Forces.

“During the war, almost everybody served here at one point or another, including Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Newfoundlanders, Canadians, even Americans for a short while,” Douglas said.

Within a four-hour drive he can access some 1,000 war cemeteries, he said, so it made sense to establish himself in Ypres so he could work on the grave project.

But while he loves his work, he said he’s ready to move on.

“If there is somebody out there that wants to come over and live in Belgium, great. Think about it,” he said.

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