Guild Patron
Professor Gary Sheffield BA MA PhD
The Guild was very fortunate to have the internationally known historian, author and battlefield guide Richard Holmes as its original Patron. He supported the idea of the Guild from the outset and his untimely death in 2011 came as a great shock to members.
He was succeeded as Patron by Lord Richard Faulkner of Worcester, who fulfilled this role until 2025.
Professor Gary Sheffield was appointed Patron of the Guild in 2026. He was educated at the University of Leeds (BA, MA) and King’s College London (PhD). A military historian, he began his academic career at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and subsequently held Chairs at King’s College London, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC); the University of Birmingham; the University of Wolverhampton; and University of Buckingham. Sheffield retired from full-time academia in 2021 and is now Visiting Professor in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London, based at the JSCSC. He has published widely on military history, especially the history of the First World War including the best-selling Forgotten Victory – the First World War: Myths and Realities (2001) and a biography of Field Marshal Haig (2nd edition, 2016 – the first edition was shortlisted for the Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature in 2012). He shared the 2002 Templer Medal for his contribution to D. French and B Holden Reid (eds.),
The British General Staff: Reform and Innovation. Sheffield is currently completing Civilian Armies: the experience of British and Dominion soldiers in the two world wars for Yale University Press. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the Society for Army HIstorical Research, and past Presidents of both the Guild and Western Front Association. Gary Sheffield has led battlefield tours and staff rides throughout his career. Married to Viv, they have an adult daughter and son, and four grandchildren’.
Guild President
Air Vice Marshal Steve Abbott CBE MPhil BA FCMI RAF (Retd.)
AVM Abbott joined the RAF on 15 September 1974 as a University Cadet. He gained a BA Honours degree at the University of East Anglia in 1977. He joined 37 Sqn RAF Regt as a Rapier Flight Commander in 1978. He completed the Long Gunnery Staff course at the RSA Larkhill in 1981, followed by tours on 27 Sqn RAF Regt at RAF Leuchars and 19 Sqn RAF Regt at RAF Brize Norton. During this period, he completed 5 operational tours in Belize. In 1985, he was posted to RAF Coningsby as the Station Regt Officer, before returning to GBAD duties in 1987 as the Deputy Sqn Cdr of 63 Sqn RAF Regt at RAF Gutersloh. During this period, he completed an operational tour in the Falkland Islands.